I 



DISEASES OF THE HORSE. 



EVEKY MAN 

HIS OWN farriee: 



CONTAINING 



THE CAUSES, SYMPTOMS, AND MOST APPROVED 
METHODS OF CURE, 



OF THE 



DISEASES OF HORSES. 

BY FRANCIS CLATER, 

AUTHOR OP "EVERY MAN HIS OWN CATTLE DOCTOR,^ 
AND HIS SON, JOHN CLATER. 

FIRST AMERICAN FROM THE TWENTY-EIGHTH LONDON EDITION. 

WITH NOTES AND ADDITIONS, 
BY J. S. SKINNER. 



PHILADELPHIA: 

LEA AND BLANCHARD. 

1845. 



Entered, according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1845, 
By Lea and Blanchard, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court, for the Eastern District of 
Pennsylvania. 



ca^ 









2., -7. 



C. Sherman, Printer, 

19 St. James Street. 



PREFACE 



That this work should have passed through twenty-eight editions 
in England, where so many by different authors have been publish- 
ed on the same subject, ought to be deemed sufficient proof of its 
value, as well as of its popularity ; while the date of the last 
edition (1843) offers assurance that the one founded on it, and here 
presented to the American public, embraces whatever is most new 
and reliable in the veterinary art. 

To those who may naturally inquire whence the necessity tor 
this work, in addition to the one on the Horse by Youatt and 
Skinner, put forth recently by the same publishers, it may be an- 
swered, that while that work is much more historical and elaborate, 
this is confined to diseases and their cures; and though equally 
practical in that respect, is so much smaller and cheaper than the 
larger work, as to place it within the convenient reach of every 
oae. The two are adapted to meet the demands of the scholar and 
the groom ; the former claiming a place in the library of every 
gentleman, as this one should be found for daily reference in 
every stable, along with the curry-comb and the brush. 

J. S. Skinner. 

Baltimore, April, 1845. 

/ > 



ADVERTISEMENT 

TO THE TWENTY-EIGHTH LONDON EDITION. 



The Proprietors of this work, induced by the extensive sale of 
former editions, and animated by the desire of rendering the pre- 
sent worthy of public patronage, have placed it in the hands of a 
Veterinary Surgeon, well known both as an author and a prac- 
titioner, under whose superintendence it has undergone a careful 
revision throughout. 

The corrections and additions it has received will, it is hoped, 
by rendering the work more corresponding to the improved state of 
Veterinary Surgery, enhance its usefulness, and extend its claims 
on public favour. 

December, 1843. 



ADVEETISEMENT 

TO THE TWENTY-SEVENTH LONDON EDITION. 



The Editor makes no apology for the freedom which he has 
taken with the last Edition of this Work. In fact, a new era in 
Veterinary Science has commenced since Clater first wrote. His 
book was valuable at the time, but the Veterinary Art could scarcely 
then be said to have existence; and there is more difference in the 
knowledge and mode of practice of Veterinary Surgeons now and 
forty years ago, than has taken place in human medicine in the 
last four hundred years. 

The work is, in a manner, re-written, or, at least, it is accommo- 
dated to the altered and improved character of the art ; and it may 
be honestly said to embody the sentiments and practice of the best 
Veterinary Surgeons of the present day. 

The list of drugs which was appended to Clater's former work is 
omitted, because in the revised edition of his " Cattle-Doctor," by 
the Editor of the present publication,* a sufficient list was given of 
the medicines used in Veterinary Practice, and to that the reader 
is referred. 

The present edition has been carefully revised, and many very 
important corrections and additions have been made. 

* Every man his own Cattle Doctor, containing the Causes, Symp- 
toms, and Treatment of all the Diseases incident to Oxen, Sheep, 
Swine, Poultry and Rabbits, by Francis Clater. A new and enlarged 
edition, with extensive improvements by the Editor of this edition of 
the Farriery, 12mo., just published, by Lea and Blanchard, Philadel- 
phia. 



CONTENTS. 



Introduction— The Anatomy and Physiology of the Horse 

The Head 

The Nostrils 

The Eye 

The Ears . 

The Mouth . 

The Teeth . 

The Neck 

The Chest . 

The Withers, Spine, and Back 

The Stomach 

The Intestines ..... 

The Liver ..... 

On Breaking ..... 

Chap. 

1. Inflammation and its Treatment 

2. Inflammation of the Brain (Phrenitis) 

3. Vertigo (Megrims) 

4. Stomach Staggers (Indigestion) . 

5. Rabies (Madness) 

6. Inflammation of the Eye— Cataract— Gutta Serena 

7. Inflammation of the Tongue — Blain . 

8. Inflammation of the Palate — Lampas 

9. Inflammation of the Membrane of the Nose— Coryza . 

10. Specific Inflammation of the Membrane of the Nose— Glan 

ders ..... 

11. Inflammation of the Absorbents — Farcy . * . ' . 

12. Inflammation of the Cellular Substance under the Jaw- 

Strangles ..... 

13. Inflammation of the Glands— Sore Throat— Vives— Barbs or 

Paps — Gigs or Bladders • . . . , 

14. Inflammation of the Bronchial Tubes — Bronchitis 

15. Epidemic Catarrh— Catarrhal Fever— Distemper— The Ma- 

lignant Epidemic ...... 

16. Influenza ... . ' 



13 
13 
14 
16 
16 
17 
18 
22 
23 
24,25 
27 
27 
28 
28 



33 

54 
56 
58 
59 
61 
67 
68 
70 

70 
75 

79 

82 

85 

87 
92 



Xll CONTENTS. 

17. Inflammation of the Lungs — Pneumonia — Thick Wind — 

Broken Wind — Chronic Cousjii — Roaring- — Consumption . 93 

18. Inflammation of the Pleura — Pleurisy — Water in tlie Chest 105 

19. Inflammation of the Heart — Carditis — Pericarditis — Hyper- 

trophy . . . . . . . Ill 

20. Spasm of the Diaphragm . . . . .113 

21. Tetanus — Locked Jaw — Epilepsy — Palsy. . . 115 

22. Inflammation of the Stomach — Poisons — Bots — Worms . 120 

23. Inflammation of the Bowels — Spasmodic Colic — Flatulent 

Colic — Strangulation — Calculi in the Bowels . . 126 

24. Inflammation of the Kidneys and Bladder — Profuse Staling 

— Difficulty of Staling — Gravel — Stone . . . 134 

25. Castration, Swelling of the Sheath — Amputation of the Penis 

— Warts — Inversion of the Womb — Inversion of the Blad- 
der — Polypus in the Vagina . . . . 142 

26. Docking— Nicking . . . . . .148 

27. Diseases of the Skin — Want of Condition — Hidebound — Sur- 

feit— Mange— Moulting .... 151 

28. Excoriations — Wounds — Ulcers — Poll Evil — Fistulous Wi- 

thers — Penetrating Wounds .... 157 

29. Injuries and Lameness of the Fore Extremities — Shoulder 

LamencvSS — Sprains — Injuries of the Elbow Joint — Broken 
Knees — Speedy Cut — Splent — Sprain of the Back Sinews 
— Windgalls — Sprain of the Fetlock Joint — Rupture and 
Sprain of the Suspensory Ligaments — Cutting — Sprains of 
the Pastern and Coflin Joints — Ringbone — Grogginess — 
Fractures . . . . . . 163 

30. Injuries of the Hind Extremities — Lower Fracture of the 

Haunch — Sprain of the Round Bone — Stifle Lameness — 
Thorough-pin — Capped Hock — Bog Spavin — Bone Spavin 
— Enlarged Hock — Curb — Svpelled Legs — Grease. . 175 

31. The Structure and Diseases of the Foot — Brittle Hoof — Sand- 

Crack — Tread or Overreach — False Quarter' — Contraction 
— Inflammation of the Laminae — Pumiced Feet — Wounds 
— Quittor — Bruise of the Sole — Corns — Canker — Thrush 
— Navicular Joint Disease . . . . 186 

32. The Principles of Shoeing — Description of the Different Shoes 206 



THE ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY 



OF 



THE HORSE. 



INTRODUCTION. 

A NATURAL historian would say that the proper characteristics 
of this noble animal are, six cutting, or fore-teeth in the upper and 
under jaw ; two tushes in the upper and under jaw in the male, and 
seldom any, or only small ones, in the female ; a space between the 
tushes and the cheek-ieeth or grinders; and six grinders above and 
below in each jaw, flattened on the top, and with several ridges of 
enamel running down the body of the teeth. The eyes are large; 
the ears also large and erect; the upper lip capable of more motion 
than is usual in herbivorous animals generally: the foot having but 
a single toe, and that covered with a thick hoof; the tail covered 
all over with long hair ; two teats in the female, and those placed 
in tlje groin; one stomach, but the lining of it composed of two 
membranes; the stomach unusually small, and the intestines, and 
particularly the coecum, proportionably large. 

Tke Head. — The head of the horse should not be too large in any 
breed, for that usually indicates stupidity, and makes the saddle- 
horse heavy on the hand. A head small in proportion to the size of 
the horse shows that he has much Eastern blood in him, and is ge- 
nerally accompanied by considerable spirit; but, occasionally, by 
one of an unmanageable and untameable nature. A head bearing 
a fair proportion to the general size, and the bulk of the head con- 
sisting in the breadth of the forehead more than the length of the 
face, the eye at the same time being a little prominent and lively — 
these peculiarities will in most cases indicate the manageable and 
serviceable horse. The breadth and the flatness of the forehead, 
and the shortness of the face, should be particularly regarded and 
sought after for general and light, yet lasting work ; but the narrow 

2 



14 INTRODUCTION. 

• 

and rounded forehead, and long nose and face, may do well, or per- 
haps should he selected, in the quiet, strong horse of heavy work. 
For common purposes, a horse with a sinking or hollow across the 
nose, a little below the eyes, should seldom be chosen ; it tells of ill 
temper, especially if joined with a more than usual display of the 
white of the eye. The line of the face should be nearly flat, yet a 
little prominence, and a very little one — a slight resemblance to the 
Roman nose of the human being — will generally characterize the 
good-tempered, good-feeding, strong, lasting, manageable, but not 
very light or speedy horse. 

The setting-on of the Head. — There are few things more con- 
nected with the comfortable use of the horse than this. A great 
deal of the pleasure of riding, and much of that of driving, depend 
on the manner in which a horse carries his head. It must form a 
certain angle with the neck, so as to play easily backwards and 
forwards, or the mouth cannot be light and pleasant. A horse 
boring with his nose before him except when he is going at con- 
siderable speed, will tire any arms, and will always be unsafe. 

The Lips. — If we take the parts of the face individually, the lips 
are of more importance than is generally imagined. A firm and 
compressed lip gives proper bearing and support to the bit; and 
when the muscles of the lips are continually acting, as they must to 
keep the lips compressed, it is a pretty sure pledge that the muscles 
every where have considerable power. A horse with his lips flabby 
and hanging down is sure to be diseased, or sluggish, or old. The 
lips should not only be firm, but they should be small and thin ; in- 
deed they must be small and thin in order to be firm ; for the inter- 
posed fat will always make them loose, and, what is worse than this, 
will interfere with that delicacy of feeling about them on which the 
easy management and guidance of the horse so much depend. 

The Nostrils. — So far as the speed and the spirit of the horse are 
concerned, the form of the nostrils is of considerable moment. The 
horse breathes entirely through his nose : he does this even when 
he is most distressed ; and therefore, if all the air that is to supply 
the lungs must enter through the nostril, an(^ if, in exertion, the 
horse requires a great deal more air than at other times, a large 
nostril is an excellent provision. Nature generally suits the parts 
of the animal to his wants, and the purposes for which he was de- 
signed; and if a horse has much speed and endurance about him it 
is usually indicated by the wideness of the nostril. This is one 
main point of difference between the blood horse and the common 
country horse. The usual breathing of the horse will generally 
show the degree of expansion of which the nostril is capable — a 
rattling trot of a few minutes' duration will leave no doubt about 
the matter. The thinness of the skin of the nostril is another indis- 
pensable accompaniment of speed and sound wind. The nostril of 
the cart-horse, with its thick skin, and all the fat that is contained 



INTRODUCTION. 15 

in and about it, cannot possibly expand to the extent which a horse 
requires when at full speed. 

The False Nostrils. — There is a curious formation of the nostril 
in the horse which we do not observe in any other animal. The 
whole of the external opening does not conduct into the cavity of 
the nose, but the outer part of the nostril is a mere blind pouch : it 
is formed of a doubling of the skin, and is lined with hair through- 
out. The fact is, that the nose is not only concerned with breathing, 
but it is the seat of smell ; and should the air, or particles of matter 
introduced with the air, fall rudely upon the membrane, on the sen- 
sibility of which the acuteness of smell depends, it would be injured, 
and its functions destroyed. That part of the inside of the nose 
which is supposed to be most concerned with smell lies on the upper 
and outside portion of it; while the passage for the air is principally 
on the floor of the same cavity, and along the inner side towards 
the central cartilaginous division of the cavity of the nose. Then 
the use of this false nostril probably is to turn off the current of air 
from the parts most connected with the sense of smell, and to direct 
it to its proper passage leading to the windpipe and the lungs, 

The Cartilaginous Division of the Nostril. — A firm piece of 
cartilage runs up the centre of the nose of the horse as well as that 
of the ox, dividing ihe cavity into two parts. The intention of this 
is plain enough: liz., that if injury or disease should occur on one 
side of the nose, the other might be kept sound, and fit for the pur- 
pose of breathing. There are two things deserving of remark in 
this cartilaginous septum or dividing wall of the nose of the horse. 
From the more flexible nature of the nostril, more of it, or of the 
membrane that covers it, is seen in the horse than in the ox ; and 
that practitioner is wise who avails himself of this circumstance in 
order to judge of the existence and character of every inflammatory 
disease of the chest. The membrane covering this cartilaginous 
dividing wall, and the nostril generally, is a continuation of that 
which lines the windpipe, and tlse passages of the lungs. It parti- 
cipates in inflammatory affection of that membrane, and therefore 
by its redness or its paleness (redness being the character of inflam- 
mation, and paleness, or want of extra blood in the vessels, pro^^'^J 
the absence of inflammation) it generally shows the degree of in- 
flammatory action existing in some other part of the membrane, and 
probably in the chest, and the danger which is to be apprehended. 
There is another circumstance of an anatomical nature belonging to 
this wall of division, and which should not escape observation. In 
the ox and in the other domesticated quadrupeds it does not run 
through the whole extent of the cavity of the nose; but, towards 
the upper part of it, there is a communication between the two nos- 
trils lender the septum. There is sufficient support to the bones of 
the lower part of the face, and sufficient provision against the dan- 
gers to which this animal is usually exposed. The horse, however, 
is subject to a disease, and a dreadful and a fatal one, from which 



16 INTRODUCTION. 

the ox is exempt, and at its comrnencemenl a disease often of the 
membrane of the nose alone — I mean glanders. The cartilaginous 
septum running from the bottom to the very top of the cavity guards 
against the spread of this, and preserves one nostril sound if the 
other should be ulcerated. 

Of the remainder of the external part of the head I have little to 
say. The more angular the face is, the more breeding it discovers; 
and the shortness of the face, in proportion to the whole head, indi- 
cates the same thing. 

The Eye. — No horseman needs to be told how much and how 
rightly he judges of the horse by the appearance and expression of 
the eye. The countenance of the human being is not a surer guide 
to the temper and the health, than is the eye of the horse. We 
always like to see a large eye in the horse, and one a little promi- 
nent. If the eyelids swell or project over it, and give it a sunken 
appearance, there has been inflammation of the eyes. If one eye is 
somewhat larger than the other, inflammation has existed in that 
eye alone, or worse in that eye than in the other. I shall have to 
speak of this more fully in its proper place, when, likewise, I shall 
have to show of how much consequence is a perfect transparency of 
the eye. 

The Zygomatic Arch. — Above the eye is an angular projection 
of bone, nothing of which is seen in the ox. It is particularly 
brought under observation by the difficulty with which a collar a 
little too small is passed over it. It is designed to give both 
strength and room ; strength, because the horse is exposed to seri- 
ous injury from the brutality of those who have the care of him, and 
the blow will oftenest fall about this spot; and also to protect the 
extremity of the lower jaw, round which the temporal muscle, by 
whose contraction it is moved, is entwined : there is also room for 
the greater bulk of muscle, and the more extensive motion of the 
jaw of the horse. The ox has nothing to do but crop the soft 
herbage, and afterwards ruminate at his leisure: while the horse 
has to masticate often with considerable rapidity harder food; and 
in a state of nature his teeth are formidable weapons of offence and 
uefence. 

The Frontal Si7iuses. — In the ox there is a continuation of cells 
under the forehead, and between the outer and inner plates of the 
skull, running from the end of the cavity of the nose to the very 
horn, and up the horn ; and being intended to give strength to the 
base of the horn, and to remove it from immediate contact with the 
bone over the brain, and thus to avoid occasional and dangerous 
concussion in the contests between cattle whose horns are their 
weapons of offence. In the horse these cells extend liut a little 
way up the forehead, under the name of the frontal sinuses; and, 
above them, a dense plate of bone covers and securely defends the 
brain. 

The Ears. — As it regards the beauty, and temper, and spirit of 



INTRODUCTION. 17 

the horse, considerable attention is deservedly paid to the ear. It 

should be small and erect, pointed forward, and quick in motion. A 
large and lop ear is a sad blemish, and tells tales both as to the 
breeding of the horse and his degree of activity. He has but little 
true blood in him, and he is usually a perfect drone. Some have 
endeavoured to remedy this by cropping the ears, and it was once 
the fashion to crop all horses, whether the ears were large or small. 
tt was a barbarous practice ; it gave an unnatural appearance and 
false character to the horse; it interfered materially with the 
hearing, for the vibration of sound could not be so numerously and 
perfectly collected : it sometimes produced inflammation that led on 
to perfect deafness ; and many a horse became permanently shy 
and vicious, from the soreness of his ears caused by cropping. 

The inside of the ear is lined with soft velvety hair. It was 
placed there to keep out the cold and insects, and occasionally to 
break the concussion of the air. The groom, however, finds great 
fault with it, and often cuts it out with his scissors, and singes it 
with his candle, and if he does not sometimes make very trouble- 
some sores, and render the horse difficult to halter, he will at least 
expose him to annoyances from whicli Nature had defended him. 

The Tongue. — There are some peculiarities in the mouth of the 
horse with which the horseman and the practitioner should be well 
acquainted. The tongue is considerably shorter than in the ox, 
and is tied down by a longer and thicker bridle. This was de- 
signed to render it a firmer and securer cushion for the bit to rest 
upon. 

The Bars. — The palate is divided into numerous transverse 
ridges, called bars. They are thickenings or duplicatures of the 
membrane of the palate, and their edges are curiously fringed, the 
points of the fringe pointing inwards in a direction to the back of 
the mouth. The uneven surface presented by the bars, and the 
pointing of the fringe inwardly, contribute to retain the food in the 
mouth, while they afford no obstacle to its passing towards the 
gullet. 

The Soft Palate. — The horse is the only animal who cannot, 
except under the most violent excitation, vomit through the mouth. 
This is caused by the peculiar construction of the curtain at the 
back part of the tongue, which separates the mouth from the gul- 
let. It hangs down from the ed>j-e of the rounded bone of the 
palate, and in every other animal forms only an imperfect division. 
There is room between the bottom of the curtain and the tongue 
for the air to pass, and the food to be returned ; and therefore vomi- 
ting is more or less easily accomplished in them all. But in the 
horse, the curtain, or soft palat^ reaches down to, and rests upon, 
not only the back part of the tongue, but the upper portion of the 
windpipe, and forms a complete separation. It is so contrived that 
when the food has been gathered together by the tongue, and by 
the action of the tongue, and that of the back part of the mouth, is 



18 INTRODUCTION. 

pushed ag-ainst the soft palate, that gives way; but if the pressure 
comes on the other side, the back of the tongue prevents the cur- 
tain from yielding, and the contents of the stomach are returned 
through the nostril alone. It is not, therefore, any thing about the 
palate which renders the act of vomiting so difficult in the horse ; 
but it depends on the peculiar construction of the stomach, which 
I shall describe in the proper place. Tlie length and singular 
attachment of the soft palate, however, prevent the horse from 
breathing through the mouth, and cause him to vomit through the 
nose alone. 

The Teeth. — The manner in which the age of the horse may be 
determined by an inspection of the teeth will be presently consi- 
dered ; but there is something in the situation and construction of 
them that deserves notice. The nippers, placed in the front of the 
mouth in order to cut the grass, are covered with a hard substance, 
the enamel, to prevent them from being worn away. One simple 
coat of enamel, however, would, not effect the purpose. There is a 
great deal of wear and tear when the ground is dry and the stalks 
of the grass withered aad hard, and the hardest enamel would soon 
be destroyed. To prevent this a beautiful contrivance is adopted. 
The enamel, as it passes over the top of the tooth, is indented and 
sunk into it, forming a pit or hollow, lined by enamel, and the edges 
of the enamel projecting above, and preserving the body of the 
tooth, for a while, from being injured. In process of time, however, 
it is worn down below the hollow, and so the black mark in the 
fore teeth, which was nothing but the inside of this hollow, gradu- 
ally disappears. 

The Tushes. — There is a small space between the nippers and 
the tushes, and a larger one between the nippers and the grinders: 
it seems, as it were, left on purpose for the reception and safe 
lodging of the bit; and on its proper degree of sensibility depends 
what is termed the goodness of the mouth, which materially affects 
the value of the animal. If, for instance, the membrane which 
covers this part is thick, hard, and insensible, the horse has a hard 
mouth ; and on the other hand, if it is very thin and sensitive, the 
animal has a tender mouth, and cannot bear the hard pressure of 
the common bit. A good mouth is one between these extremes, 
having a sufficient degree of sensibility as to obey readily the pres- 
sure of the bit, and yet at the same time sufficient firmness to pre- 
vent this pressure being injurious. Much of the education of the 
animal will depend on giving him a proper mouth as it is termed, 
that is, teaching him to obey accurately and readily the slightest 
pressure of the bit. This requires considerable care. Many hasty, 
ill-tempered breakers absolutely ^oil a horse in this respect; and 
it is by no means uncommon to find this part, particularly in young 
animals, considerably injured by the bit, so much so that a portion 
of the bone sometimes dies and exfoliates, leaving behind it a trou- 
blesome ulcer. 



INTRODUCTION. 19 

The Grinders. — Behind are the grinders, and they are very 
curiously constructed. It would not be enough for the food of the 
horse to be cut and bruised : it must be actually ground down to a 
certain extent, or, worked as he is at uncertain intervals, and, per- 
haps, all day .long, there would not be time for it to digest. The 
back teeth are so formed as to constitute the most perfect grind- 
stones that can be imagined, by means of the flat yet roughened 
surfaces which they present to each other. That these surfaces 
may not be worn down, or even worn smooth, there is not only one 
indentation of enamel, as in the front teeth, but several columns of 
it, penetrating down through the body of the teeth. The body of 
such a tooth is long wearing down; and when it does wear away, 
the bony matter between the columns of enamel goes first, and the 
enamel is left projecting ; so that on an average, as fast as they are 
worn away, they will present an unequal surface. To this must be 
added that they are continually growing, so that they will stand at 
nearly the same height as long as the horse lives. 

Wolves^ Teeth. — There is often found before the first grinder an 
additional tooth — a very small one, and called, but I know not why, 
a wolf's tooth, and strange stories have been told of the pain which 
it gives the animal, and the injury it sometimes occasions. I con- 
fess I know not the use of these teeth, but on the other hand I have 
no proof of the mischief they do. I have seen them in the mouths 
of horses sixteen years old,* that have never appeared to suffer the 
least inconvenience from them. Should it ever seem to be neces- 
sary to remove them, it may be easily effected with the common 
keyed instrument used for extracting human teeth, or even with a 
pair of small pincers. 

[Many persons of close observation, are of opinion that blindness 
in the hor^e is often occasioned in some way not understood, by 
wolf's teeth; they confidently believe that the disease may be 
arrested antl removed, by the removal of these teeth, which is 
easily efl^ected. 

[As there is nothing into which the purchaser so sharply inquires 
as the age of the horse, and as our author has not been so full as 
we could have wished on this point, we here give with illustrations, 
the best instructions we have seen, and can testify to their general 
accuracy. We call attention particularly to what is said of the 
bridle tooth or tusk, situated between the fore and the jaw teeth 
or grinders in the male. Mares rarely have them. When the 
inside of the bridle tooth loses the groove and becomes rounded and 
the point of it worn off'and blunted, the horse may be considered as 
past eight years old at any rate.] 

Age of the Horse. — There are no certain marks by which we can 
judge truly of the age of a horse but his teeth ; and these only for 
a certain lime: after that time, there is no method to be depended 
upon, but we may form a good guess by the front teeth of his upper 
jaw, until he is about twelve or thirteen ; especially if we take into 



20 INTRODUCTION. 

consideration the countenance of the horse, with some other marks 
which we shall point out. A horse has forty teeth, twenty-four 
called grinders, from which we learn nothing of his age ; then six 
above and as many below, in the fore part of his mouth, called 
gatherers, or cutting teeth, and it is from these we know his age; 
then four tushes, two above and two below, sometimes named bit 
teeth, making in all forty. Mares generally have no tusks, their 
teeth are therefore only thirty-six. When a colt is foaled, he has 
no teeth in the front of his month ; in a few days, two above and 
two below make their appearance; soon after these, four others 
appear; after these, it is usually three or four months before the 
corner teeth make their appearance. These twelve colt's teeth in 
the front of the mouth, continue without alteration, till the colt is 
two years or two years and a halt old ; he then begins to lose his 
colt's teeth for permanent ones, sooner or later, according to the 
manner in which he has been fed. 

As it is from the front teeth of the lower jaw a horse's age is 
known, until he is in his eighth year, it is to these only we shall 
confine our attention. At about two years and a half old, he sheds 
the two middle teeth of the six ; (as these first appear in the colt's 
mouth, so are they the first to disappear) ; these are succeeded 
by two permanent or horse teeth, stronger, of a deeper colour, and 
grooved or fluted from top to bottom, with a black cavity in the 
centre; he is now rising three. 

His mouth continues thus till some time in- the latter part of the 
fourth year, when the same process takes place with the teeth on 
each side of the two in the centre; so that at four years old, he 
becomes possessed of four horse teeth in the middle, with their 
natural black marks in the centre; and one colt's tooth only on 
each side. 

The next he sheds are the two remaining, or corner teeth ; when 
he has got the successors to these, his mouth is full ; 'he is then 
called a horse, five years old: he has the black mark now in all the 
six front teeth. 

During the course of this year, the tusks, situated beyond the 
corner teeth upon the bars, appear ; he is now five years old, off; 
and through the whole of the year is "rising six:" — we say, "he 
will be six years old next^grass." Some time in the last six months 
of the sixth year, the black cavities of the two middle teeth are 
gradually filled up; and when he is turned six years old, they are 
nearly, or quite smooth upon the surfice. In the latter part of the 
seventh year, when the horse is termed " six off," six past, or rising 
seven, the teeth on each side of the two centre ones, become 
gradually possessed of the same appearance; and when he is seven 
years old, the two outside or corner teeth only, are marked with 
the black cavity. 

After this period, the horse is said to be aged ; and from this time 
to the completion of his eighth year, the mark in the corner teeth 



INTRODUCTION. 



21 



continues gradually to disappear, till it is quite gone, when the age 
by the teeth is no longer known. He is now "past the mark of 
the mouth." 





TWO YEARS AND A HALF. RISING THREE YEARS. 





FOUR YEARS. 



FIVE YEARS. 




SEVEN YEARS. 



22 INTRODUCTION. % 

After this period, yoii may judge of the age by the marks or cavi- 
ties in the upper teeth. At about ten, the two front teeth have 
lost their marks; the two next them have but little left, but in the 
corner teeth these marks may be readily seen; these gradually 
wear out, and during the twelfth year are quite erased. The tushes, 
like the teeth, are gradually changing their appearance; they are 
small, sharp, and shell-like at first, and are grooved on their inner 
surface; they gradually become larger and longer; the concavities 
or grooves on their insides also lessen ; and at about eight, they are 
nearly lost. At about eleven and a half, or twelve, the inside of 
the tush begins to approach towards a round form, and after becomes 
quite round; they are then blunt at the top and of a yellowish 
brown colour. The teeth of horses as they advance in years, 
appear longer, from the gums shrinking from them, they get more 
oblique in their position; they also acquire a much darker colour. 
Horse dealers are said to practise numerous artifices in order to 
deceive their customers, with respect to their horses' ages : one of 
these is termed bisliopping ; that is, making artificial marks in the 
teeth, when the natural ones are worn out; but there is always a 
want of resemblance between the natural and artificial mark; you 
may likewise compare them with the state of the tushes. They 
also knock out the corner teeth of four year olds, to make them 
appear five ; for when these are removed before their time they 
are soon succeeded by horses' teeth: this miy be detected by the 
want of tushes. In racing, all horses take their ages from May- 
day. 

The Lower Jaw. — Some attention sbould be paid to the size of 
what is called the channel, that is the space between the branches 
of the lower jaw. If it is narrow, the head will sit awkwardly: 
for the rounded projection of the windpipe cannot be received be- 
tween the branches of the jaw; and the head will always be poking 
out, diminishing materially from the beauty of the horse, and being 
a sad inconvenience to the rider, for the animal will bear heavily 
upon the hand, and cannot be reined in except by extreme force. 
There are few things of so much importance with regard to the 
appearance of the horse, and the pleasure of the rider or driver, 
as that at which I have already hinted — the setting-on of the 
head — and this depends more upon the width of the channel than 
any thing else. 

The Neck. — On the shape of the neck I need not say much : it 
should be proportionate to the body, but a little too long rather than 
too short, and small rather than thick, at least towards the upper 
part of the neck, in order that the head may be well set on, and 
have freedom of motion. Plenty of muscle, nevertheless, may be 
allowed or should always be found at the base of the neck; other- 
wise there will be a looseness in the motion of the neck unpleasant 
to the rider, and sometimes indicating weakness in the horse. If, 
however, this thickness extends far up the neck, it gives a heavinesa 



INTRODUCTION. 23 

to the appearance of the animal, usually accompanied by heaviness 
of disposition, and of action. If the thickness is about the middle 
and under part of the neck, the evil is worse. A ewe-necked horse 
is an unpleasant goer, for there cannot be that angle formed be- 
tween the head and the neck on which the pleasant management of 
the mouth essentially depends. 

I will pass over the shoulders until I come to describe the diseases 
of the feet and legs ; for the structure and the diseases of these 
parts cannot well be separated. 

The Chest. — Although many horsemen, and even veterinarians, 
too carelessly regard the chest in their examination of the horse, 
it is by far the most important part about him, for it contains most 
of the vital organs. There are two main things to be considered 
about the chest of the horse. In the first place it must be capacious. 
There must be room enough for the heart to beat, and the lungs to 
heave. There must be room enough for the exertion of sufficient 
power to circulate the blood through the whole frame, and for the 
lungs to prepare that blood, in order to supply the nourishment, 
and keep up the action of the frame. Therefore a long-logged, 
narrow-chested horse will never carry much flesh, nor be capable 
of continued severe work; and he will be peculiarly liable to in- 
flammation, and other diseases of the chest. 

There is a point of more consequence, and also frequently over- 
looked ; I mean the form of the chest. We do not want the horse 
to carry flesh and fat, which a large and round chest would cause 
him to do, and which it does in the ox, and is all that we require in 
the ox ; but we want the chest to accommodate itself to the different 
degrees of exertion. It has not only to prepare and circulate 
sufficient blood when the animal is quiet, but to enlarge, and to 
be capable of preparing and circulating a great deal more, when it 
is rapidly expended in rapid motion. Therefore we must have a 
deep as well as a lotde chest. A circular chest is capable of little 
or no enlargement. The figure of a circle can never be changed 
so as to make it contain more than it naturally does. A deep chest 
may enlarge: it may become more circular, and the lungs can 
expand, and admit more air, and arterialise more blood, or render 
it capable of supporting life and action. Therefore we admit of the 
circular chest in the ox ; we admit of it in the heavy draught horse ; 
but in the hackney and the horse of light work and speedy draught 
we look for something else. 

For another reason we want the deep chest in horses for light and 
speedy work. The circular chest will be weighty in front: its very 
form will require thick and fleshy shoulders in order to adapt them- 
selves to it; and this will give a heaviness before, a heaviness and 
slowness of action, a battering and bruising of the fore-legs and feet, 
and a want of safely : for the centre of gravity will be too near the front 
support of the horse, and will be too readily thrown beyond that 
support. The deep chest usually has its principal fulness behind 



24 INTRODUCTION. 

the elbow, and thus the weight is thrown more under the horse: 
therefore, the form for useful purposes will be that of moderate 
breadth, depth at the girth, and a barrelling behind the elbow. 

It will be the duly of the veterinary surgeon to attend to this in 
his treatment of disease, and especially in the opinion which he 
gives of the probable termination of disease of the chest. The 
varying capacity of the chest, adapting itself to the exigencies 
of the case, is quite as important with reference to the increased 
quickness of breathing- in inflammation or fever, as to that produced 
by exertion alone. If the little narrow chest will scarcely allow 
room for the lungs to play at all, and if the circular chest was pre- 
viously full, there will be considerable danger from the hurried 
breathing of fever ; and therefore it is that many more of the narrow 
and round-chested horses fall victims to inflamed lungs, than of 
those who possess a deep and expansible chest. 

Again, there ought to be plenty of room in another way ; the 
chest should be long; the ribs should be somewhat apart from each 
other, so that they may reach back under the loins, and towards the 
hips. We have then more room for the organs of respiration before, 
and for those of digestion behind. There is more support given to 
them, and they are better able to discharge their healthy functions. 
Therefore a horse ribbed home, or the space between the last rib 
and ihe hip bone being small, is almost sure to bo strong and 
enduring. lie may not be very speedy, for room at this part has 
more to do with the organs of digestion than the faculty of speed; 
but he may be depended upon as having a good constitution, and as 
being capable of all ordinary work. If we require from the horse 
only the occasional exertion of more than common speed, we may 
excuse a little hollowness of the flank, provided there is strength 
enough behind; for there will be more room for the full stretch of 
the hind extremities, and therefore for a longer stride, and greater 
speed. 

The Withers. — There are a great many important points con- 
nected with the back and spine. The withers are the spinous pro- 
cesses, or upright projections of the ten first bones of the back. 
High withers have, in the opinion of every judge of the horse, been 
associated with superior action; and the reason of this is plain. In 
proportion as the withers are high the shoulder-blades are long and 
well developed, their action is thereby extended, and the muscles 
connected with them and the shoulder-bones have the advantage of 
additional leverage ; and in the same manner have the muscles con- 
necting the shoulder-blades with the withers. Thus, then, if the 
conformation of the other parts of tlie fore extremity correspond, we 
have generally good and high action cormccted with high withers. 
The withers thus afford an illustration of the mechanical advantage 
gained by the application of the lever. It is a law of mechanics that 
in proportion as the arm of the lever to which the power is applied 
is lengthened, the weight will be more easily raised ; and therefore 



INTRODUCTION. 25 

in proportion to the height of the withers will the muscular power 
expended in elevating the fore quarters be diminished. For the 
horse of quick work, the hunter, and even the hackney, high 
withers are desirable, but not for horses of heavy draught ; for, in 
proportion to this power of elevation, there is usually a lightness 
before, which would be a considerable defect in him whose excel- 
lence depends on the weight and muscular power which he is able 
to throw into the collar. High withers would be a defect rather than 
an excellence in the dray-horse. In race-horses, too, the withers 
may be too high, by causing the action to be too lofty, and thereby 
diminishing the length of the stride. 

The Spine of the horse is a beautiful contrivance. The chest 
and belly contain organs of the greatest importance, and essentially 
connected with life. If they were suspended from an unyielding 
bar, as of iron or wood, the concussion inevitably would be fatal to 
him.- Again, in the speedy action of the animal, the horse was 
designed for our convenience and pleasure ; and next in importance 
to the safety and swiftness with which he carries us, are the easi- 
ness and pleasantness of his action. If the back were unyielding, 
who could bear to be jolted by him for a single mile 3 — On the 
other hand, if it yielded too much, it would betray a degree of 
weakness incompatible with many of the tasks which we impose 
upon him. The spine is therefore divided into numerous bones, and 
these are connected together by a cartilaginous elastic substance, 
forming so many joints, each of which possesses a little motion ; the 
aggregate motion of the whole giving sufficient ease to the rider, 
without lessening the strength of the back. The strength of the 
spine is secured by a mechanism that deserves peculiar attention. 
The round head of one bone accurately corresponds with a cup or 
hollow in.that before it, and between them is placed this cartilagi- 
nous substance: there are also strong ligaments above and below, 
and on either side, so that, although we sometimes hear of a frac- 
tured spine — although the bones may yield to violence, the joints 
are rarely dislocated. 

Man, brutal or avaricious, will sometimes overload the horse, or 
urge him to too great, or too sudden exertion : then there is so much 
stress on these joints, that the ligaments are injured, and inflamma- 
tion ensues; the usual consequence of inflammation about a liga- 
ment or a bone takes place, bony matter is thrown out around them, 
and the joints lose their springiness, or rather they are destroyed. 
The back then becomes stiff', and the horse is not pleasant to ride: 
he turns v;ith difficulty, and he will rarely lie down : he is '•^chinked 
in the chine, ^^ and materially lessened in value. 

The Length of the Back. — Few, except those who have closely 
examined the structure of the horse, are aware what difl^erence 
there is in the length of the back in animals of the same height. 
Compare the Suffolk punch horse and the lengthy Cleveland in this 
respect. There can be no doubt that the long-backed horse is 



26 INTRODUCTION. 

easier in his paces, for a lon^ spring has a more extensive and 
gentler motion than a short one. He will usually be speedy, for he 
will be able to bring his hind legs with more advantage under him, 
and thus, in the act of galloping, will have more purchase in order 
to send his fore limbs forward, and to lengthen his stride; but just 
in comparison to the length of the spring will be its weakness; and 
in proportion as the distance between the supporters of the frame 
increases in the horse will be the weakness of the back, and the 
ease with which he may be overweighted and strained. On the 
other hand a back a little too short may promise strength; but it 
will he accompanied by short and rough action, by a deficiency of 
speed, a tendency to unsafeness, and particularly to overreaching. 
No decided opinion can be given about this matter, with respect to 
any particular horse, without reference to his form in other respects, 
and the purposes for which he is required. A slim flat-sided horse, 
with a long back, can be good for nothing at all. A stouter horse, 
with breadth of loin and muscular quarters, requires length, not 
only to carry off an appearance of clumsiness, but because he can 
afford to part with a little strength for the sake of greater pleasant- 
ness of action and speed: however, for general purposes, a short- 
backed horse is properly preferred, as possessing all the strength 
that can be required, a hardihood of constitution which in a manner 
bids defiance to disease, and as much speed as is usually required. 

The Line of the Back. — The proper form of the back is a depres- 
sion immediately behind the withers, and then a straight or gently 
rising line to the loins. There are two deviations from this, the 
saddle and the roach back. In the first there is a hoUovvness, as if 
the back was made expressly for the saddle. This betrays some 
degree of weakness, but is accompanied by easiness of action, and a 
fine arciied crest. It is scarcely an objection if the horse has to 
carry a light weight, and it gives a nobleness to his appearance in 
single harness. The rocrr/i-hacked horse is dear at any price, for 
there is no keeping the saddle upon him, or his back from being 
galled; his hind legs arc awkwardly doubled under him, and his 
head is low, and he is heavy on hand. 

The Loins. — The loins should be most carefully examined by the 
horseman. They are rightly considered a test of the general 
strength or weakness of the animal. If they are broad and muscu- 
lar, he will be equal to considerable work: but if there is no sub- 
stance about them, he is of little worth for the saddle or the collar. 

The haunch and the quarters will be most advantageously con- 
sidered when I describe the hind extremity, as introductory to a 
consideration of the diseases of that part of the animal. 

Referring my reader to the Treatise on Cattle, for an account of 
the contents of the chest and belly, and of all the important func- 
tions there carried on, I will briefly notice a few peculiarities in the 
structure of the stomach, intestines, and liver of the horse; and then 
proceed to the nature and treatment of disease. 



INTRODUCTION, 27 

The Stomach. — There is a stranfre difference between the four 
stomachs of the ox — one of them so large — and the little stomach of 
the horse. It is smaller in proportion to his size than that of any- 
other animal. It will not contain half of that which an ox would 
eat at an ordinary meal. The horse is valuable to us on account of 
his speed as well as his strength: he is liable to be called on to 
exert himself, and that to the utmost, at all hours, and whether full 
or fasting; and when we are journeying with him, scarcely suffi- 
cient time is allowed for the grinding of his food, and none for its 
digestion. His stomach is also placed close against the diaphragm 
— that muscular division between the chest and belly which was 
described as the chief agent in breathing, — which, by its protrusion 
into the chest, and pressing upon the lungs, and forcing out the air, 
produces the act of expiration ; and by its contraction enlarges the 
chest, and admitting the air, causes the inspiration. In every act 
of inspiration the diaphragm presses against the stomach, and more 
or less displaces it. If the stomach were large, this singular 
muscle would have hard work to move it when full and heavy, and 
the horse would be soon exhausted by the violence of the exertion; 
or, perhaps, more truly speaking, it would not be able to move the 
stomach at all, and the breathing would be laborious, and the animal 
in continual danger of suffocation. Therefore this small stomach 
was given to him, that he may be always ready for our work, and 
that without serious annoyance to himself or us. Some persons 
have affirmed that he is the only animal that can work with safety 
and comfort on a full stomach. He can do so better than others: 
but many a horse is blown, and even destroyed, by being hurried 
after a plentiful meal ; and thousands of them used to be rendered 
broken-winded, and comparatively worthless, by being galloped 
after watering, because the groom happened to imagine that this 
was necessary in order that the water might not chill or gripe the 
animal. 

The stomach is not only small, but its structure is singular. One- 
half of it is cuticular, like the whole of the paunch of cattle, and 
constitutes a mere reservoir for the food. The horse is often com- 
pelled to eat too fast for the food to be properly chewed and pre- 
pared for digestion; therefore it is retained awhile in this cuticular 
portion of the stomach, in order that it may be macerated and 
softened. After all, it passes into the other part of the stomach, 
where the process of digestion is perf)rmed. From the smallness 
of the whole stomach, and a portion of it being employed as a mere 
reservoir, the food is necessarily hurried on before the work of 
digestion can be half accomplished. It must, however, be accom- 
plished somewliere, or the animal could not obtain sufficient 
nourishment. 

The Intestines. — Digestion continues to be carried on in the first 
portion of the intestines, the duodenum, which is comparatively 
larger than in almost any other animal, and which for the purpose 



28 INTRODUCTION. 

of continning- the process of digestion, is provided with a thick 
villous coat with nuinerous projecting folds, like a second stomach. 
The process still proceeds in the smali intestines, which, in a horse 
of the usual bulk, are no less than sixty-six feet in length, and 
would contain eleven gallons of fluid ; and it is not perfected until it 
has passed the larger intestines. The first of these, the colon, and 
which, although long, is not bulky in cattle, is of an enormous size 
in the horse, and will usually contain no less than twelve gallons of 
fluid. Here a curious provision is made for the retention of the yet 
imperfectly-digested food. The colon is curiously puckered into a 
great many deep cells, through every one of which the food must 
pass, and in each of which it is for a while detained. The ccecum, 
or blind gut, which, although not properly a continuation of the 
small intestines, lies at the extremity of them, the more fluid part 
of the food seems to be sent into the coecum, which will contain at 
least four gallons of fluid. Its construction of cells is even more 
complicated than that of the co?on, and plainly designed for the same 
purpose, the retention of the aliment. When the contents of the 
stomach, after having passed through all this complicated apparatus, 
has at length reached the rectum, or last intestine, a very small 
portion of undigested food will remain. 

The Liver. — Two fluids enter the duodenum by small orifices, in 
order to contribute (but in what way has not been satisfactorily 
determined) to the process of digestion. The one, from the pancreas, 
is nothing different from that which has been described in cattle; 
but the bile comes immediately from the liver, instead of first pass- 
ing through the usual reservoir, the gall-bladder. The horse has 
no gall-bladder: his stomach we have said is small; it must, there- 
fore, be oftener replenished, and the food must be oftener passing 
out of it, and there can be no necessity for the gall being detained 
in any reservoir for use at a distant time. 

There is nothing peculiar about any of the other contents of the 
belly, and therefore I will proceed to the consideration of another 
subject, — Breaking, — which is of great importance, as it developes 
the character of the Horse, a'nd, by good management, establishes 
his future usefulness. 

[On Breaking. — Before we proceed with our author to the con- 
sideration of the diseases of the Horse, we may be permitted to say, 
on a subject which it is true does not come within the purview of 
this work, that horses are often abused, and not unfrequently perma- 
nently injured in their qualities in the act of breaking them! An 
undertaking which should be conducted with singular judgment and 
gentleness, is often committed to the rudest hands, force is substi- 
tuted for persuasion, and feelings of resentment afid antipathy are 
deeply implanted, where the sole aim should be to inspire confi- 
dence. When we reflect how great is the change to be wrought in 
the condition of the animal; that the yet unbridled colt is to be 
driven up from where he " paweth in the valley and rejoiceth," to 



INTRODUCTION. 29 

be thoroughly subdued, and doomed through life to abject diud^ery, 
humanity and reason alike suggest that the process should he as far 
as practicable one of pure gentleness and persuasion. 

The art of breaking young and even the wildest and most indo- 
mitable horses, on this principle of easy and cautious approaches to 
our object, constitutes the chief article in a small volume, which 
deserves to be better known were it only for the testimony it bears 
to the obvious benevolence of the author — Willis J. Powell, Esq., 
Its title is " Tachyhippodamia, or the art of quieting Wild Horses 
in a few hours, as discovered by the author in the year 1814 — to 
which are added many useful instructions concerning Horses, in 
French, Spanish and English." We take the liberty of extracting 
as much as will serve to convey an outline, or we may say the main 
principle of his process, intending thereby to recommend the work 
itself to public attention, and thus promote the sale of it, and 
respect for its author.] 

He says, " a horse is gentled by my secret in from two to sixteen 
hours. The time I have most commonly employed has been from 
four to six," and under the head of " the secret,''^ goes on to observe 
" cause your horse to be put into a small yard, stable or room. If 
in a stable or room, it ought to be a large one, in order to give him 
more exercise with the halter, before you lead him out. If the 
horse belongs to that class which appear only to fear man, you must 
introduce yourself gently into the stable, room or yard where the 
horse is. He will naturally run from you, and frequently turn his 
head from you ; but you must walk about. extremely slow and softly, 
so that he can see you, and whenever he turns his head towards 
you, which he never fails to do in a short time, say in a quarter of 
an hour, or half an hour — 1 never knew one to be much longer 
without turning towards me — at the very moment he turns his head, 
hold out your left hand towards him, and stand perfectly still, keep- 
ing your eyes upon the horse, and watching his motions, if he makes 
any. If the horse does not stir for ten or fifteen minutes, advance 
as^lowlyas possible, and without making the least noise, always 
holding out your left hand, without any other ingredient in it than 
what nature put in it. The reason of my having made use of 
certain ingredients before people — such as the sweat from under a 
man's arm, &c. — was, to disguise the real secret; and Drinnen, as 
well as several others, believed that the docility to which the horse 
arrived, in so short a time, was owing to those ingredients. It will 
be seen, in this explanation of the secret, that they were of no use 
whatever; but, by placing so much confidence in them, those who 
had succeeded in breaking one horse, failed in another, and that is 
what I foresaw. 

No one can accuse me of bad faith, to whom I discovered this or 
any part of the secret ; for I always intended to publish the whole. 
In the second place, many revealed what I had told them, after the 
most solemn promise to the contrary. Caution is the parent of 

3 



30 INTRODUCTION. 

safety : I, therefore, by multiplying the ingredients, caused a confu- 
sion amongst those who thought Ihey knew the real secret. Though 
I revealed enough of the secret for a man to break a horse in a few 
hours, it was not enough to make the horse remain gentle; that is, 
generally speaking : for some horses would be perfectly gentle ever 
after; but the greater number would not. The implicit faith placed 
in these ingredients, though innocent of themselves, became faith 
without works; and thus men remained always in doubt concerning 
this important secret. The secret is a complete lesson of morality ; 
for all is gentleness — patience — perseverance. 

But I return to the explanation of the secret. If the horse makes 
the least motion when you advance towards him, stop and stand 
perfectly still till he is quiet. Remain a few minutes in this posi- 
tion, and then advance again in the same slow, almost imperceptible 
manner. Take notice: if the horse stirs, stop without changing 
your position. It is very uncommon for a horse to stir more than 
once, after you begin to advance, yet there are exceptions. He 
generally keeps his eye steadfast on you, till you get nigh enough 
to touch him upon the forehead. When you are thus near to him, 
raise slowly, and by degrees, your hand, and let it come in contact 
with that part just above the nostrils, as lightly as possible. If the 
horse flinches, (as many will,) repeat with great rapidity those light 
taps or strokes upon the forehead, going a little further np towards 
his ears by degrees, and descending with the same rapidity, till he 
will let you handle his forehead all over. Now let the strokes be 
repeated with more force over all his forehead, descending by lighter 
touches to each side of his head, till you can handle that part with 
equal facility. Then touch, in the same light manner, making your 
hands and fingers play around the bottom or lower part of the 
horse's ears, coming down, now and then, to his forehead, which 
may be looked upon as the helm that governs all the rest. Having 
succeeded in handling his ears, advance towards the neck with the 
same precautions, and in the same manner; observing always to 
augment the force of the strokes, whenever the horse will permit 
it. Perform the same on both sides of the neck, till he lets you 
take it in your arms without flinching. Proceed in the same pro- 
gressive manner to the sides, and then to the back of the horse. 
Every time the horse shows any uneasiness, return immediately to 
the forehead, as the true standard, patting him with your hands, and 
from thence rapidly to where you had already arrived ; always 
gaining ground, a considerable distance further on, every time this 
happer'is. The head, ears, neck and body being thus gentled, pro- 
ceed from the back to the root of the tail. This must be managed 
with dexterity, as a horse is never to be depended upon that is 
skittish about the tail. Let your hand fall lightly and rapidly on 
that part next to the body a minute or two, and then you will begin 
to give it a slight pull upwards every quarter of a minute. At the 
same time, you continue this handling of him, augmenting the force 



INTRODUCTION. 31 

of the strokes, as well as the raising of the tail, till you can raise it 
and handle it with the greatest ease, which commonly happens in a 
quarter of an hour in most horses; in others almost immediately, 
and in some much longer. It now remains to handle all his legs. 
From the tail come back again to the head ; handle it well, as like- 
wise the ears, neck, breast, &c., speaking now and then to the 
horse. Begin, by degrees, to descend to the legs, always ascending 
and descending, gaining ground every time you descend, till you get 
to his feet. TalJk to the horse in Latin, Greek, French, English or 
Spanish, or in any other language you please, but let him hear the 
sound of your voice, which at the beginning of the operation is not 
quite so necessary, but which I have always done in making him lift 
up his feet: — 'Hold up your foot' — 'Leve la pied' — ' Alza el pie' 
— 'Aron ton poda,' &c., at the same time lift his foot with your 
hand. He soon becomes familiar with the sounds, and will hold up 
his foot at command. Then proceed to the hind feet, and go on in 
the same manner ; and, in a short time, the horse will let you lift 
them, and even take them up in your arms. All this operation is 
no magnetism, no galvanism. It is merely taking away the fear a 
horse generally has of a man, and familiarizing the animal with 
his master ; as the horse doubtless experiences a certain pleasure 
from this handling, he will soon become gentle under it, and show 
a very marked attachment to his keeper." 



EVERY MAN 

HIS OWN FARKIEK 



CHAPTER L 

ON INFLAMMATION. 

A VERY great proportion of the diseases of the horse are con- 
nected with, or consist in, Inflammation ; for the heart is large, 
the arterial system is strong, and the animal is exposed to many 
causes of irritation. Inflammation is an increased flow of blood ; 
the heart or the vessels act with too much energy, and the blood is 
driven too rapidly, or in too great quantity, along. This may be 
either local or general. We may have inflammation of the eye, or 
of the lungs, or of the foot, and the general constitution may not be 
much affected : the inflammation is then said to be local ; but, after 
a while, the vessels of the whole frame will take on the same action 
as those of the diseased part, and sympathetic or symptomatic fever 
is produced. In some cases, the action will be general from the 
beginning, or rather, we are unable to ascertain the part which was 
first, or which is chiefly affected : this form x)f inflammation is 
termed simple fever. All these will in turn pass in review before us. 

Inflammation may be either acute or chronic. It may have sud- 
denly arisen, and may be exceedingly violent, and may endanger 
life; but by prompt treatment it may speedily disappear, leaving 
scarcely any trace behind except debility of the part: at other 
times it may rapidly destroy the part by its intensity. Sometimes 
it may have slowly and gradually come on : it may never reach any 
great degree of intensity, but it is fixed, and it is evidently doing 
permanent mischief: it is altering the structure, as well as disar- 
ranging the functions of the parts. 

The treatment will vary according to the nature of the organ at- 
tacked and the violence of the infllammation, and scarcely any 



34 INFLAMMATION. 

general rules can be laid down ; but the two most successful oppo- 
nents of inflammation are bleeding and purging. It may be con- 
venient to say a few words with regard to each of them before we 
proceed. 

BLEEDING. 

If inflammation consists in a too rapid flow of blood through some 
vessels, or through the frame generally, there can be nothing so 
likely to subdue it as the lessening of the quantity of blood. In 
general intiammation, blood should be extracted from the jugular 
vein : it is the most convenient vessel to get at, and the blood may 
be taken quickly away. In general inflammation, and in violent 
inflammation of any part which threatens to affect the whole system, 
the practitioner should never hesitate to bleed, and to bleed largely. 
The precise quantity of blood that should be taken away in inflam- 
matory cases can never with propriety be previously determined ; 
but, the finger of the operator being kept on the artery, the blood 
should be permitted to flow until the pulse becomes materially 
softer, or flutters, or the horse begins to blow hard, or threatens to 
fall. This is the golden rule in the treatment of acute inflamma- 
tion, of every kind, viz., to bleed promptly and copiously, and until 
the circulation is evidently afl^ected. Many a man has repented of 
small bleedings: he has played with the disease and not beaten it; 
he has undermined the strength of the patient, but he has not dimi- 
nished the intensity of the local inflammation : but rarely has any 
one repented of one prompt abstraction of blood, however profuse. 

Next to the quantity of blood taken away, and of almost equal 
importance with it, is the quickness with which it is abstracted. 
The loss of four quarts, poured out in a full stream, will affect the 
horse more, and make a greater impression upon the disease, than 
double the quantity suffered to escape in a small stream, or merely 
to dribble down the neck. The fleam of the lancet should, there- 
fore, be sufficiently broad-shouldered. 

The lancet is the most portable instrument: it appears the most 
surgical one, and after a little practice may be as much depended 
upon as the fleam, while the horse is not frightened by the flourish 
of the stick, nor the vein bruised, nor the opposite side of it cut 
through by the violence of the blow. 

When a sufficient quantity is taken, and before the blood is 
sponged away from the neck, the edges of the orifice should be 
brought together without lifting the skin more than possible from 
the neck, and kept in contact by a small sharp pin passed through 
them. It is the pulling up of the skin and suffering the blood to 
pass into the cellular membrane under it, which, next to the blunt- 
ness or foulness of the fleam, or the violence of the blow, often 
causes a swelled neck after bleeding. 

Should considerable swelling appear, and the lips of the wound 



BLEEDING. 35 

open, and a thin ichorous fluid be discharged from the wound, and 
the neck feel hot, the part should be fomented several times in the 
day with warm water, and a little Friar's Balsam applied to the 
lips of the wound. 

Inflamed vein is one of those cases that must not be trifled with. 
If the wound does not, within a day or two after the application of 
the basalm, appear disposed to heal, the edges of it must be lightly 
touched with the hot budding-iron, or some other caustic. The 
incision should be kept apart with the finger and thumb of the left 
hand, while the point of the budding-iron is introduced as lightly as 
possible, brought into contact with both edges, and immediately 
withdrawn. Nothing should then be done to the wound for a day 
or two, except to cleanse it if necessary. 

Sometimes the first indication of an inflamed vein is a swelling 
of the part, which often increases rapidly above the seat of bleeding 
from the inflamniation of the vein obstructing or stopping the flow 
of blood in its course towards the heart. When this is the case it 
becomes a somewhat serious and tedious affair. If the swelling is 
considerable it should be subdued as much as possible by fomenta- 
tions and lotions. The head of the horse should be tied to the rack, 
and his diet consist principally of mashes, so as to avoid the move- 
ment of the jaws as much as possible. A dose of physic may be 
given, and in a few days the swelling should be blistered. The 
blister should be washed off the second day, and repeated as soon 
as the parts are clean enough. If any matter issues from the 
wound it should be pressed out daily, and a little caustic applied to 
its lips. 

With this treatment the horse will generally be fit for work in 
about a month: although the vein will frequently be lost, yet the 
swelling will subside, the blood find new channels, and little or no 
after inconvenience will be experienced. 

When there is much mange about the neck, there is always 
considerable hazard in bleeding from the jugular. The skin is 
already in an irritable, if not inflamed state: this is much increased 
by the wound inflicted by the lancet, and troublesome swellings, 
sinuses, and sloughing often ensue. 

If the practitioner should fail to open the vein at the first attempt, 
it will be best to endeavour to bring it exactly under the orifice he 
has made through the skin, and to strike again more gently upon 
it, than to make a fresh wound ; but if it is necessary to have re- 
course to bleeding three or four hours after the first operation, the 
old wound should not be opened, but a new incision always made. 

If, after the lapse of four or six hours, the first bleeding has not 
lowered the inflammation, more blood should be taken, without any 
unnecessary delay. 

In cases of local inflammation, the bleeding should take place as 
nearly as possible to the diseased part, but with this proviso, that it 
shall be between the disease and the heart. It will be easily com- 



36 INFLAMMATION. 

prehended that, while much of the good effect of general bleeding 
will be obtained, and aZZ of it if the blood can be taken away quickly 
enough, this further advantage will be gained, that the inflamed 
part will be drained of its blood, and its gorged vessels relieved. 
If, however, the bleeding is practised farther fiom the heart than 
the seat of inflammation, the effect can at best only be that of a 
general bleeding, and will not, in fact, be half so beneficial, because 
it will be scarcely possible to take away the blood so rapidly from 
any other part as from the jugular vein. Therefore the surgeon 
may bleed from the arm for injuries in the knee or fetlock, or from 
the coronet, or the toe, in foot-cases. The proper bleeding places 
will be pointed out as we consider the inflammations or other dis- 
eases of different parts. 

PURGING. 

There are fev/ medicines so abused by the groom, and sometimes 
by the more intelligent proprietor of the horse, as purgatives. 
They are given without any rhyme or reason, and in excessive, 
and injurious, and sometimes fital doses; and perhaps I may af- 
firm that more horses are destroyed by physic than by any one dis- 
ease to which they are subject. On the other hand, there are no 
medicines so useful as purgatives when judiciously employed. 
They are especially useful in inflammatory complaints. They 
produce, while acting, or preparing to act, a kind of nausea — a 
general relaxation, highly to be desired in a complaint, the essence 
of which is undue action of the circulating vessels. They remove 
from the stomach and bowels any cause of irritation which might 
have existed there, and which may prolong, if it did not produce, 
the complaint. They cut off the temporary supply of nutriment to 
the frame — for the chyle is hurried along the intestines and expel- 
led, instead of being taken up by the lacteal absorbents; and, more 
especially, and next to bleeding, and sometimes to a greater extent 
than bleeding, they lessen the quantity of fluid circulating through 
the system. The bulk of aqueous fluid discharged by the action of 
a brisk purgative is sometimes enormous, and a great portion of it 
would otherwise have entered into the circulation. 

In the early stages of fever, physic is indispensible; and also in 
every local inflammation, except in some cases of the intestinal 
canal, or where there is a strong sympathy between the diseased 
part and the bowels, so that there is danger that the inflammation 
may be transferred from its first seat to the intestines, when they 
are excited and irritated by the purgative. On this account it is 
hazardous practice to administer a strong purgative in inflammation 
of the lungs. 

This leads to the observation that there is another way in which 
a purgative may be useful in cases of inflammation, viz., by deter- 
mining in some degree the current of the blood from the inflamed 



PURGING. 37 

part, and thus giving double relief, by the different direction of the 
current, as well as by the diminution of the actual quantity circu- 
lating through the vessels. 

Horses that are fat and plethoric are much benefited by physic, 
and a great deal more so than by bleeding. 1 do not hold with the 
regular purging at certain times of the year. It is a good maxim 
"to let well alone;" yet periodical physickings are much more 
harmless than bleedings, for they simply evacuate the bowels, and 
by that frequently do permanent good. Sportsmen know that phy- 
sicking is the first step in order to get a horse into working condi- 
tion ; but the effect of bleeding on a fat horse is doubtful even at the 
time, cind most certainly injurious afterwards; for it produces a 
disposition to create more blood, and a greater quantity than that 
which was lost; and in a short time the horse becomes fuller of 
blood, and more pursy than he was before. 

In greasy swellings of the legs, lameness attributable to the joints, 
old cough, worms, and mange, physic is very useful. 

The purgatives of the horse are very few in number. The su- 
perior efficacy of the Epsom salts was spoken of in the work on 
Cattle; they are uncertain in the //o?'se, although given in enor- 
mous doses; and occasionally they gripe sadly. They are useful 
only in clysters. Glauber salts have no better or more certain 
effects. Castor oil, although the farrier gives bottle after bottle of 
it, to the great expense of the owner of the horse, is not only an 
uncertain, but sometimes a decidedly injurious medicine. Mild 
and harmless as it is in the human being, and given to relieve grip- 
ing and remove irritation, it is too apt to gripe the horse, and some- 
times violently, and there is no doubt that it has occasionally pro- 
duced fatal inflammation of the bowels. Linseed, olive, and neaVs 
fool oils are better things: they will rarely do harm, but they are 
often uncertain. The best and almost the only purgative that can 
always be depended upon is aloes. 

There has been a great dispute about the kind of aloes. The 
Cape is the cheapest, and the Barbadoes usually three or four times 
as dear. The Cape will work tolerably, but in a somewhat larger 
dose, and after considerable exercise: the Barbadoes are most cer- 
tain in their effect in common cases, and where exercise is admis- 
sible, and can alone be depended upon when the disease under 
which the horse labours forbids exercise: the Cape will sometimes 
gripe, the Barbadoes will very rarely do so. In his practice in his 
own infirmary, the surgeon or the proprietor of the horse may safely 
use the Cape aloes; but he must never send out any other ball than 
one composed of Barbadoes aloes for patients that cannot be exer- 
cised at all; and of an equal mixture of the two where exercise can 
be given, and he can depend on the groom for giving it. 

The following will be a good physic mass for common use: — 



38 INFLAMMATION. 

RECIPE (No. 1). 
Physic Mass. 
Take — Barbadoes aloes, very finely powdered, seven pounds and a half; 
Cape aloes, also powdered, seven pounds and a half; 
Ginger, powdered, one pound ; and 
Palm oil, seven pounds and a half: 
Beat them well together, and keep them in a jar closely bladdered. 

[Here we think it well at once to describe the different kinds of 
aloes, as we find it laid down in that excellent work, Johnson's 
Sportsman's Cyclopedia; it will be seen that he recommends aloes 
as *' the most effectual purgative for horses," and gives the quantity 
and proportions for a dose,] 

" Aloes are distinguished by the name of the place from whence 
they are brought. The Socotrine aloes are brought from the island 
of Socotra, and are supposed to be more safe in their operation than 
the other kinds. This aloe is of a dark brown colour, opaque, and 
has a less disagreeable smell than the others. The Barbadoes aloe 
is brought from Barbadoes, and has been generally considered apt 
to produce griping, and other unpleasant effects; it is of a darker 
colour than the former kind, less brittle, and of a stronger and more 
disagreeable smell. It is more active than the Socotrine, and for 
that reason is more used in veterinary practice than it, though this 
kind of aloes has its advocates. The Cape aloe is rather transpa- 
rent, very brittle, easily powdered, and is of a bright yellow colour; 
its smell is not so strong as the Barbadoes, but stronger and less 
agreeable than the Socotrine. It is much lower in price than either 
of the others, but is so uncertain in its effects, that it is hardly ever 
employed in medicine. The aloe is the most effectual purgative 
for horses with which we are acquainted ; it is generally made into 
balls with the addition of soap, which makes them operate more 
speedily. The dose of Socotrine aloes is about six drachms ; Bar- 
badoes, from four to six drachms; and of the Cape aloes, from six 
to seven drachms ; but the dose depends upon the form of the horse, 
and not his size, as might be supposed." 

The addition of the oil, and the powdering of the aloes, where 
the practitioner can depend upon the druggist for not cheating him 
in the pounding, will very much insure the effect, and prevent 
griping. 

A very mild ball of this mass will weigh an ounce and a quarter, 
and it may be increased to an ounce and three-quarters. 

If mercurial physic is wanted — it should never be used without 
^evident occasion — it may be thus made : — 

RECIPE (No. 2). 

Mercurial Phijsic Ball. 

Take. — Physic mass, from 10 to 14 drachms; and 

Calomel, from one drachm to one and a half; 
Beat them together, and form them into a ball. 



PURGING. 39 

The common mode of giving- the calomel over night, made into 
a little ball with ginger or linseed meal, and the physic ball in the 
morning, is objectionable. It is borrowed from human medicine: 
but in the horse, calomel is not a purgative : it only assists the ac- 
tion of purgatives; and by separating it from the purgative, we are 
not only deprived of that for wiiich it is principally valuable, but 
we run the hazard of salivating the horse. 

The addition of soap, or the carbonates of potash or soda, with 
the physic ball, is also objectionable. This also is borrowed from 
human medicine, and designed to hasten the solution of the aloes, 
and prevent them from producing their supposed irritating effect on 
the rectum or last intestine. In the horse they have not this ten- 
dency to spend themselves on the rectum, and they dissolve soon 
enough: the soap and the alkali, therefore, can produce no other 
effect than to divert a portion of the nervous energy to the urinary 
organs, for they are diuretics; and thus the action of the physic 
will be somewhat weakened. 

In some cases, as in inflammation of the brain, it is desirable that 
the physic should act as quickly as possible. There is another pur- 
gative which may then be resorted to, but which, from its irritating 
properties, should otherwise be avoided, and that is, the Crdton nut. 

The following would be the prescription: — 

RECIPE (No. 3). 
Very strong Physic Ball. 

Take — Physic mass, 10 drachms ; and 

The farina of the croton nut from 10 to 15 grains: 
Beat them together, and make them into a ball. 

This may be given at first if it is wished that the physic should 
work quickly; but if purgative medicine has been already adminis- 
tered, and has not produced its desired effect, ten grains of the 
farina of the croton may be made into a ball with a little linseed 
meal, and given. 

The preparation for physic is as important as the physic itself. 
The horse should be well mashed (a simple bran mash) for twenty- 
four hours before he has the physic; and mashes should be given 
until and during the working of the physic. 

The management during physic is also deserving of consideration. 
If the weather and the disease will permit, the horse should be 
walked out for a quarter of an hour three or four times on the day 
on which the physic is administered. On the following morning he 
should be exercised again; and if the physic does not work, at the 
expiration of twenty-four hours from the time of its administration 
that walk maybe changed to a gentle trot; but no quicker pace 
must be allowed. If at the end of the second day the physic should 
not operate nothing should be immediately done except to adminis- 



40 INFLAMMATION. 

ter injections of warm water, in each of which half a pound of 
Epsom salts has been dissolved, and which will generally do good, 
and can never be prejudicial. If all these means fail, another ball 
may be given two or three days afterwards. 

As soon as the horse begins to purge, the exercise should cease. 
There is not a more general and fatal error of the groom than with 
regard to this — when the physic begins to work he increases the 
exercise. The horse then certainly purges more, but more than a 
rational man would wish : he is likewise often griped, and, now and 
then, inflammation of the bowels supervenes, and one that is not 
easily subdued. 

From the time of administering the physic the water should be 
given to the horse lukewarm, if he will drink it so; at all events 
its coldness must be taken off. No corn should be allowed until 
the medicine has ceased to work; and then always mixed with 
bran, either dry, or made into a mash, if the horse can be induced 
to eat it. 

When the horse is physicked to get him into condition, a second 
ball may be given on the fifth day after the setting of the first, and 
of the same weight, if the first operated fairly. Two balls will 
generally be sufficient ; but in the groom's estimation there is 
something magical in the number three. 

Back Raking. — The introduction of the hand into the rectum, 
and the removal of the dung which it may contain, is a useful ope- 
ration, when the physic is slow to work, and should always be 
practised when physic is given in illness, and it is desirable that it 
should operate quickly; not only a portion of dung, which by its 
presence and weight might retard the operation of the medicine, is 
removed, but the excitement of the rectum, by the introduction and 
motion of the hand, extends, by sympathy, to other portions of the 
intestinal canal, and they are disposed more readily to respond to 
the stimulus of the purgative. 

This is the history of the action and the benefit of injections, 
which are too much neglected in retarded purgation, and in various 
cases in which steady and copious purging is required. Simple, 
warm water, or soap and water, or a solution of Epsom salts, not 
more than half a pound at a time, are the best injections; and in 
every veterinary surgeon's practice, and in every large establish- 
ment, the Patent Injection Pump has superseded the use of the old 
bladder and pipe, and even of the syringe, on account of the ease 
and quickness, additional quantity and force, and diminished annoy- 
ance to the animal, with which the fluid may be introduced. 

[Here we deem it best to give observations from the work already 
quoted, which appears to be very judicious and useful on the general 
subject of physicking horses.] 

" Physicking. — The practice of administering purging medicines, 
to horses, is on a supposition that they tend to preserve health 
and contribute to activity. 



PURGING. 41 

" An indiscriminate use of purgatives (Mr. Denny very properly 
observes) is so prejudicial in veterinary practice, that more valuable 
horses have been lost b}'^ improper courses of them than from any 
accidental cause. 

" It is surprisinor that this erroneous notion, that horses frequently 
require to be purged should prevail, and that this important under- 
taking should so generally be left to the direction of the groom. 
Reasoning from analogy, would a man, whose strength was daily 
declining from some defect in the digestive organs, submit to the 
experiment of taking two or three doses of drastic purgatives, to 
recover the tone of his stomach, and repair his strength ? Certainly 
not! For every man must know so well the debilitating effect of 
purging, as to be certain that such a course would tend only to 
diminish still more his remaining strength. 

"This evinces the absurdity of that common practice of giving 
horses physic in every disease. Discrimination and judgment can 
alone determine when purgatives are requisite, and when on the 
contrary, they are injurious. 

" It is commonly known (says Denny) that besides aloes and 
calomel, employed as purgatives, there are many others, as jalap, 
rhubarb, salts, and syrnps of various kinds, in daily use, from the 
supposition that the efficacy of the medicine must be increased by 
the number of ingredients. 

" Such is the prepossession in favour of these useless medicines, 
that I have known men of abilities discountenance a simple but 
efficacious dose of physic, only because it was not prepared with 
syrup of buckthorn ; which, though obtained genuine, as is hardly 
to be expected from any druggist, yet it can, in reality, only answer 
the purpose of so much treacle. The safest and only certain pur- 
gative is aloes. In particular cases, calomel is also necessary. 
But very large doses of other medicines employed for the human 
subject have no effect upon the horse, as experience sufficiently 
confirms. This may easily be conceived by those who are acquainted 
with the structure of the horse's stomach, which differs essentially 
from that of the human, exclusive of the difference in length of the 
intestinal canal. Unless therefore the stimulating quality of the 
medicine remain long after it has passed from the stomach, ic will 
.have no effect on the bowels; a circumstance which accounts for 
the ffiilure above mentioned. The horse, in a state of health, 
requires a constant supply of food to repair the waste of the body. 
As this aliment occupies a large space, the natural motion of the 
intestines is slow, so as not to expel their contents before the nutri- 
tious part is completely absorbed. Agair), the quantity of matter 
remaining in the small intestines requires the constant stimulus of 
the bile, to propel it into the large ones. A constant supply of bile 
being therefore required, the horse does not stand in need of a 
reservoir for that fluid, and therefore is not provided with a gall- 



42 INFLAMMATION. 

bladder; the bile, as it is secreted by the liver, flowing from its 
duct into the intestines. 

*' Considering, therefore, the length of the intestines, and the slow- 
ness of their motion in the horse, it is natural to suppose that a 
powerful dose of physic will so increase this action, and forcibly 
propel their contents, as to produce in some part of the intei-tines 
violent pain and spasms, succeeded by inflammation, which fre- 
quently terminates in the death of the animal; too many instances 
of which preclude the possibility of its being doubted. 

"In all cases, therefore, where the strength of the animal is not 
exactly ascertained, a small dose should be first given, which may 
be afterwards increased, if found necessary : thus every advantage 
will be secured, without hazard ; fur horses of the same breed, and 
size, differing as much in constitution as the human subject, the 
same dose, at different times, will produce very different effects. 

" Mr. Denny, in a very adequate manner, points out the cases in 
which purging-physic may be used with advantage. 

"' Horses coming from camp (says he) into warm stables, should 
have one or two doses of mild physic administered. 

" ' Many of those inconveniences that arise from a sudden change 
of temperature, as swelled legs, inflamed eyes, colds, &c., would 
also be prevented, by having the doors and windows kept open, to 
admit a free passage of air during the few first days. It is likewise 
advantageous to give each horse a cold mash or two daily, and 
afterwards close the doors and windows gradually, to prevent any 
bad consequences from the transition, which might otherwise be 
hurtful. 

" * Young horses should always have two or three doses of physic ; 
and afterwards sufficient time allowed them to get into condition 
before they are sent to the riding-school. The service loses annu- 
ally many valuable horses, by their being too hastily formed for the 
ranks; which generally produces inflammation of the lungs. 

"'Horses require .physic after having been long fed on green 
food; and also in the autumn, before preparing them for the field. 
Those also that have swelled and cracked heels, from their high 
feeding, or irregular exercise, will be much benefited by purging- 
physic' 

" We cannot omit the following, which Mr. Denny has found ex- 
tremely useful as physic for horses. 

RECIPE (No 4). 

Purging Balls. 

Take. — Of Barbadoes aloes, in fine powder, four drachms ; 
Ginger, in fine powder, one drachm ; 
Treacle, enough to form the ball. 

" This is particularly suited to blood horses. 



PURGING. 43 



RECIPE (No. 5). 



Take. — Of Aloes in fine powder, six drachms; 

Ginger, in fine powder, one drachm and a half; 
Treacle enough to form the ball. 

" This is belter adapted for horses used in hunting, or on the road. 

RECIPE (No. 6). 

Take. — Of Aloes, in fine powder, one oz. 

Ginger, in fine powder, two drachms; 
Treacle, enough to form the ball. 

" This is suitable for labouring horses. 

"The author observes, that if these doses should not be found 
sufficiently strong, a drachm or two of aloes may be added to any 
of them. In those cases where mercurial physic is deemed neces- 
sary, it is a commendable practice to give a calomel ball in the 
evening, and the aloetic pur^e. No. 4, the next morning. 

" The following are ^]JL Denny's. 

RECIPE (No. 7). 

Mercurial Balls. 

Take. — Of Calomel, one drachm ; 

Aniseeds, in powder, half an ounce ; 
Treacle, enough to form the ball. 

RECIPE (No. 8). 

Take. — Of Calomel, one drachm and a half; 
Aniseeds, in powdery half an ounce; 
Treacle, enough to form the ball. 

RECIPE (No. 9). 

Take. — Of Calomel, two drachms; 

Aniseeds, in powder, half an ounce ; 
Treacle, enough to form the ball. 

" He advises the second aloetic ball to follow the mercurial ball, 
No. 9, as these will be found sufficient. 

"The treatment of horses during a course of physic should be as 
follows : 

" Mashes of scalded bran, with a handful of corn in each, should 
be given for one or two days previous to taking the ball, which is 
to bo given early in the morning. 

" Two or three quarts of warm water only to be allowed for the 
first four hours. Afterwards give a warm mash, which is to be 



44 INFLAMMATION. 

repeated two or three times during the day. The water given 
should be warm, but not in larger quantities than usual. A small 
allowance of hay is proper at night. If mashes and water be re- 
fused, as is often the case, gruel must be given instead of them. 

"Next morning the horse should be walked out, for half an hour, 
or longer, if necessary; at which time the physic generally ope- 
rates. He may be exercised again in the middle of the day. 

" Mashes and warm water are to be continued until the evening. 
His feed may then consist of equal parts of dry bran and oats; and 
the following day his food be as usual. 

" Horses under physic require additional covering; they being then 
more susceptible of cold than at any other time. 

"The practice of trotting horses violently, to assist the operation, 
is both absurd and dangerous. Almost every instance of physic 
failing to produce its effect is in consequence of mismanagement or 
neglect in the stable. 

" An interval of eight or nine days must be allowed before the 
second dose is given, during which period he should have one or 
two hours' walking exercise daily, taking care that he be well 
groomed on his return to the stable, and regularly fed. 

" Purging Horses. — Purging medicin* are given to horses with 
different intentions, that is, either to prepare their bodies for active 
exercises, or to cure them of diseases. In the first case they are 
always to be considered as in a state of health; in the second, in 
that of disease. Previous to entering on these different heads, and 
that they may be better understood, it will be necessary to premise 
a few things relating to the stomach and intestines, the chyle, the 
different systems of vessels, with their contents, which will serve 
to illustrate what may be advanced on the subject of purging 
horses. 

" The stomach of a horse, notwithstanding his size of body, is but 
small, and its coats are thin ; the Numerous circumlocutions and 
foldings of the intestines, are wisely ordered, to detain the aliment 
till such time as it is thoroughly drained of its nourishing particles 
by those vessels called the lacteals, the office of which is, to absorb 
or drink up, and to convey the chyle or nourishment into the blood; 
their mouths open into the inner cavity of the intestines. The 
length of the alimentary canal, from the upper end of the gullet to 
the anus or fundament, is said, by Doctor Braken, to be about 
thirty-five yards. The intestines have a motion peculiar to them- 
selves, which forms its resemblance to that of a worm, is called 
peristaltic or vermicular; according as the motion is diminished, 
the evacuation by stool or dunging is in a great measure regulated. 
"The stomach is supplied with a humour or juice peculiar to itself, 
which, by mixing with the food, as the saliva, bile, and other juices, 
supplied by the pancreas, &c., undergoes a fermentative process of 
a peculiar nature, which is called digestion, and from which the 
chyle is the result. 



PURGING. 45 

"The insides of the intestines are covered with a slimy mucus, 
which is separated from the glands, in order to preserve them from 
being irritated by the food, in its passage backwards. The coats 
of the stomach and intestines are supplied with an infinite num- 
ber of blood-vessels and nerves, which are every where dispersed ; 
and hence they are exceedingly liable to inflammation, irritation, 
spasms, &.C. 

" Besides the vascular system, which includes the arteries and 
veins, there may be said to be another system of vessels, called 
absorbents ; they are of two kinds, the lacteals, and the lymphatics. 
The use of the former has been already mentioned. The lymphatics, 
are tubes or canals, furnished with valves, which convey fluids that 
are taken up by absorption on the external surface, and from the 
extremities of the body ; they likewise absorb particular fluids from 
the different cavities of the body, and from the cellular parts, &c., 
which are by them conveyed into the thoracic duct, where it is 
mixed with the chyle, and from thence it is carried into the blood. 
— Let us now consider the manner in which purging medicines 
operate on the first passages only. 

" The action of purging medicines consists in irritating the sensible 
fibres of the stomach and intestines, by which means, not only the 
peristaltic motion of the latter is very considerably quickened, but 
also the secretions of mucus and lymphatic juices, and vapour, 
which ooze every where into the cavities of the intestines, are 
increased, together with unusual quantities of pancreatic juice and 
bile from their several sources ; hence it will be obvious, how great 
a quantity of the soundest humours, or even the chyle that is derived 
from the food, before it is mixed with the blood, may be carried off 
by purging medicines, and how much the whole mass of fluids in 
general may be decreased and drawn off. 

" Since, therefore, purging is occasioned by giving such medicines 
as are found, by their irritating quality, to stimulate the coats of 
the stomach and guts, and, at the same time, quicken the peristaltic 
motion of the latter, so as to cause them to shake or throw off their 
contents by stool, it would appear, that the different kinds of purging 
medicine differ only in degrees of strength, and that they operate 
no otherwise upon the different humours of the body than as they 
stimulate the first passages more or less, and hence cause a greater 
or lesser evacuation by stool. So that, by this operation, we only 
lessen the quantity of the fluids, and clear or scour the first pas- 
sages from any offending matters that may be lodged there. From 
hence it may likewise be inferred, that there is no such thing as 
elective purgation, that is, by giving certain medicines, we drain 
off this or that particular humour from the body. This may be 
farther illustrated in the following case or example: — When a 
horse, which has swelled legs, or greasy heels, gets purging medi- 
cines, they do not act immediately on the fluids contained in the 
legs, by carrying them off only, they act by revulsion, that is, by 

4 



46 INFLAMMATION. 

drawing- away the fluids, &:.c., from the intestines ; those that are 
in the legs are, at the same time, absorbed or drawn away from the 
extremities by the absorbent vessels, to supply the want in the 
former ; and hence the swellings in the legs, &c., subside. 

"It is a common phrase, when a horse is any way out of order, to 
say, that such a horse is foul in the body, or that he is full of hu- 
mours, an expression which can only mean that the horse is in a 
bad habit of body ; as to a horse's being full of humours, the pro- 
priety of the expression in this sense cannot be admitted, as every 
horse, even in the highest state of health, properly speaking, is full 
of humours, as every gland in the body, of which there is a con- 
siderable number, separates a particular humour, which becomes 
necessary for a variety of purposes in the animal economy ; thus, 
the liver separates the bile, the testicles the semen, and every joint 
in the body has its glands, which separate a particular humour, and 
so of others. Therefore, the expression or phrase of a horse's being 
full of humours, in the common acceptation of it, is improper, and 
betrays a want of knowledge of the animal economy. 

•' Many people are but too fond of giving purging medicines, and 
frequently prescribe them whether the case may require them or 
not. Doctor Bracken has a very pertinent remark on this head. — 
' This sort of evacuation (says he) seems very much to quadrate 
with the outward senses, and makes the ignorant part of mankind 
(whose heads are fuller of humours than their horses) imagine, that 
purging medicines carry off the offending matter in most disorders, 
never considering the general rule, which ought still to be kept in 
mind, viz., that in proportion to any one evacuation's being height- 
ened or increased, most, or all, of the other natural evacuations, are 
proportionally diminished.' 

" It is a practice with many people, to ride their horses very 
hard before they give them purging medicines, in order as the 
phrase is, to stir up the humours, that, when they are afloat, (ac- 
cording to their ideas) they may be carried off by the purging. It 
has been already observed how exercise operates on the blood, by 
increasing its velocity to a great degree, and hence inclining it to 
an inflammatory disposition, which, in this case, is the very worst 
thing that could happen, upon the supposition that the horse is in 
a bad habit of body ; for purging medicines, when they are given in 
this state, may occasion inflammation in some of the principal 
viscera or intestines ; or they may bring on a fever, or other dis- 
orders, which if they do not prove mortal, yet they may, as is some- 
times found to be the case, occasion those disorders that terminate 
in blindness, incurable lameness, or in some chronic disorder, which 
may render the horse useless. 

" Riding horses about the day after they have got purging medi- 
cines, in order to forward their operating, if continued too long, till 
the horse is warm, or to produce sweating, ought always to be 
guarded against, as such treatment not only exposes them to catch 



PURGING. 4^ 

cold, but hinders the operation of the medicine in the ordinary wav; 
for it has been observed, that purging medicines sometimes go otF 
by sweat, or by urine, &c., which the ignorant and unskilful are 
not acquainted with ; they therefore conclude, that, as they see no 
great discharge of dung, the dose has been too weak, and give ano- 
ther too soon, without allowing a proper interval between them, 
which, at the same time, is made considerably stronger than the 
former, which weakens the horse very much, and a considerable 
time elapses before he recovers his usual strength. 

"I have already taken notice of the great length of the intestines; 
this, together with the horizontal or prone position of the body of 
a horse, is unfavourable to the operation of purging medicines, 
which, on that account, remain in the bowels a considerable time 
before they operate, being from eighteen to twenty-eight or thirty 
hours, according to the state of the bowels at the time, and, in some 
constitutions, even longer. In these cases, it is not advisable to 
give any medicines in order to quicken or hasten their operation; 
walking exercise, but not long-continued at a time, together with 
plenty of warm water, if the horse will drink, is the best and the 
safest means to forward the operation of them. At the same time, 
it will be necessary to notice whether the horse stales more than 
usual, as purging-medicines, as I have just observed, are found 
sometimes to operate in that way, without any considerable evacua- 
tion by dung. 1 would likewise recommend a general caution in 
giving purging balls, which is, that the operator should push the 
ball over the root of the tongue, and that he be certain of the ball's 
being swallowed entire, and not broke or thrown out of the mouth; 
mistakes of this kind have frequently occurred : when the ball 
breaks, one half, perhaps, is only swallowed, the other drops out of 
the mouth, or it may happen that the whole ball drops out unper- 
ceived. In these cases, it is concluded, from the purge's not ope- 
rating in due time,«that it has been too weak, and, therefore, the 
next dose is made considerably stronger, and hence a superpurga- 
tion ensues, attended with great sickness, loss of strength, and other 
bad consequences; therefore, when purging balls are given to 
horses, the head should be kept up, and care taken that the ball 
passes down the gullet, which may easily be discovered sliding 
down from the outside ; but, if any doubt remains of its being swal- 
lowed, a little water may be given the horse to drink, and one 
gulp or two will put it out of all doubt. 

" It is a common practice to give purging balls early in the morn- 
ing, upon an empty stomach; this, in some constitutions, occasions 
great sickness, faintness, trembling, griping pains, &c., a long- 
while before they begin to operate ; to prevent which, I have 
always ordered, and with success, a mash of bran to be given about 
an hour before the ball, which prevented these effects, and the 
purge operated in the most gentle and easy manner; and, perhaps, 



48 INFLAMMATION. 

this practice would be advisable in all cases, and in all constitutions, 
when purging-medicines are necessary. 

" Another error many people fill into is, that, although a purge 
operates very well, yet, if the horse is not very sick during its 
operation, they conclude that it will have no effect, nor will be of 
any benefit to the horse; they therefore give the next purge made 
a good deal stronger, in order, as they say, to stir up the humours; 
for they conclude, that the sicker a horse is under this operation, 
the humours are the more stirred up, and the easier carried off by 
the purge, without considering the danger that attends this opera- 
tion, and how much they expose the life of the horse by such in- 
judicious treatment. 

*' When purging-medicines are intended to be given to horses, it 
is necessary that they should be kept quiet, and rest for some time 
before, that is, from any violent exercise; and the same rule should 
be observed for some days after they have done operating, walking 
exercise only excepted. It is owing to the want of these, and such 
like precautions, already mentioned, that so many accidents happen 
daily in the purging of horses. 

" It may be now expected, that I should make some observations 
tipon the practice of purging horses, by way of preparing them for 
the race-course, hunting, &c. It must be acknowledged there is a 
difficulty in combating a practice which too generally prevails, 
although there are a number of facts which will serve to demon- 
strate, that the purging of horses indiscriminately is not necessary 
in order to prepare them for these active exercises. On the con- 
trary, it must, and indeed is, in many cases, exceedingly hurtful to 
horses, on account of the too frequent repetition of them, together 
with the too short intervals generally allowed between each purge. 

" As to the vulgar opinion of humours falling down into this or 
that particular part of the body, if horses are not properly purged, 
&c., before they are put to these active exercises, it is exceedingly 
erroneous, and must depend on a variety of circumstances, that 
ought to be taken into the account, 

" It may be of use to the practitioner, to explain what is meant 
by the phrase of humours falling down; but, at the same time, I 
must mform him, that this phrase is so generally in use, that, when 
a horse's eyes are affected, the humours are said to fall down into 
them, although they are situated nearly in the most elevated part 
of the body. But, to explain their falling down to the extremities, 
I shall take a case that frequently occurs : — When a horse that is 
in the highest state of health, but too fat and full of juices, &c., and 
accustomed to stand much at rest, is suddenly put to violent or long- 
continued exercises, his legs, &c., will be apt to swell soon there- 
after; they will perhaps continue in that state for some time; they 
may at least break out in running sores about the heels, and form 
cracks, scabs, &c. ; in this situation, it is then said that the humours 



PURGING. 49 

have fallen down to the logs. Here a question naturally occurs, 
where were these humours before the horse got this hard ride, or 
other severe expvcke, and how came they to fall down on this 
occasion only? This requires a different explanation. 

" It has been observed, in the article on exercise, the effects it 
produces when loo sudden and violent, before a horse is gradually 
habituated to it for some time previous to his undergoing such 
violent or long-continued exercises. The vessels being too full of 
fluids, they, from the rapidity of the circulation during the exercise, 
especially the finer capillary vessels, admit the grosser fluids, that 
do not circulate in them in ordinary; they likewise are liable, in 
these cases, to rupture; hence the fluids they contained are extra- 
vasated into the cellular parts, where they stagnate, and, being then 
out of the course of circulation, they occasion a swelling. If this 
happen in the legs, as they are the most depending parts of the 
body (the humours are then said to be fallen down), the swelling 
causes a distension of the skin, &c. ; the cuticular pores are then 
enlarged, and admit through them the thinner parts of the fluids to 
the outward surface on the skin, which, on being exposed to the 
external air, are then changed in their quality, and acquire, accord- 
ing to circumstances, either a soapy, clammy, or greasy appearance, 
or a sharp, foetid, ichorous quality, that erodes the skin, and, by 
lodging there, forms small ulcers. 

" It is well known, that horses, by good feeding, regular exercise, 
&c., may be brought to perform the most active exercises, and that 
many instances daily occur of horses both running and hunting, 
without undergoing any previous preparation by purging medicines ; 
and it is likewise well known, that even when purging medicines 
are given, still regular exercise is found to be absolutely necessary, 
in order to habituate the horse to this kind of active labour. 

"Post-horses likewise furnish a farther proof of what has been 
advanced ; it is well known how theyjcan be brqught to travel very 
long stages, and with great speed, without any preparation farther 
than good feedins", and inuring them by degrees to this violent 
labour. Dr. Bracken, who understood this subject very well, and 
who was likewise a great sportsman, has been at great pains in 
exploding this manner of reasoning, by a variety of sound argu- 
ments, in his second volume of Farriery Improved, where he has 
likewise given it as his opinion, 'that in most cases, good feeding, 
regular exercise, &.c., will, in time, ma^e a horse fit to start for a 
plate, without so much noise of the virtue of this or that drug or 
composition, to carry off grease, and mend his wind; for, in my 
humble opinion, the jockeys are too fond of giving purges to horses, 
whereby they weaken their constitution, by causing the fibres of 
the stomach and guts to become lax and flabby.' And, in the same 
volume, he mentions the following case of a mare of his own, 'that 
she had run six years with only two purges; neither had she an 
ounce of any kind of medicine during that time, except every morn- 



50 INFLAMMATION. 

ing", and mostly every evening, about the bigness of a pigeon's egg 
of my cordial ball ; and, I tancy, she performed as well as most 
of her neighbours, for she won eight plates out of nine, and four out 
of six every year.' 

" It ought always to be remembered, that great evacuations 
weaken an animal's body, and if they are repeated too frequently, 
and too close upon one another, without allowing a proper interval 
between each, or, if they are carried to excess, which is sometimes 
the case, the weakness in the animal system is thereby increased, 
the powers of life are quite overcome, and death follows of course. 

" I would not be understood, from what has been said, to mean, 
that purging medicines are never to be used on these occasions — 
no, I am fully sensible of their good effects, when judiciously ad- 
ministered, and horses properly managed during their operation ; 
but I do not approve of repeating purge after purge, merely because 
this or that horse is to run or hunt, without first considering whe- 
ther the animal be fat or lean, or whether he has been kept at hard 
meat, with proper exercise, or whether he has run a considerable 
time, or late in the season, at grass; all these, and a number of 
other circumstances necessary to be attended to, ought to be duly 
weighed, and maturely considered, before purging medicines are 
administered ; for example, if a horse has run long at grass, and is 
of a plethoric or full habit of body, evacuations by purging, and 
diuretic medicines, to a certain degree, are necessary, together with 
length of time, good feeding, and regular exercise, to bring his 
body into that proper habit to enable him to perform, with freedom, 
such active exercises. But, if a horse is of a lean, low, or dry 
habit of body, whether it may proceed from the want of proper food, 
from fatigue, &c., why reduce him still lower by repeated evacua- 
tions of any kind ] There is such an inconsistency in this practice, 
that it would not even deserve to be mentioned, or taken notice of, 
if it were not too much practised every day ; for, with some people, 
it is no matter of consideration with them what state or habit of 
body a horse may be in, that is, whether he be of a fat, or full, or 
lean dry habit of body, still he is said to be full of humours, and 
which must be purged off before he can run, &c. Horses, in the 
latter situation, require only good feeding, and regular exercise, to 
strengthen and improve their constitutions, which cannot fail of 
taking place, if the viscera are sound, and the horse otherwise in a 
healthy state. And, even although a horse may be inclined to be 
fat, or of a plethoric habit, yet, from the use of diuretic medicines, 
which are commonly given on these occasions, together with regu- 
lar airings and proper exercise, good feeding, dressing, &c., he may 
be brought into that proper habit of body, which will enable him to 
perform the most violent labour with the greatest ease to himself, 
and without any bad consequences arising from it. 

"But, farther, from the too frequent use of purging medicines 
to horses, their constitutions, though otherwise good, are ruined by 



PURGING. 51 

it, their strength is impaired ; it likewise contributes to shorten 
their days. Besides, it frequently happens, that, when they are 
brought to action too soon after such evacuations, their strength 
being quite exhausted by the treatment they have undergone, they 
fail in performing what was expected from them. 

" From these, and a variety of other arguments which might be 
urged, and which will readily occur to the judicious reader, it is 
obvious, that repeated evacuations, of any kind, are not necessary 
to horses, in order to prepare them either for running or hunting; 
and, if those that are intended for the latter were only allowed the 
spring grass, and taken up about the middle or towards the end 
of June, before the grass becomes too rank, although it may be rather 
inconvenient to have them in the house at that season, yet the 
owner would find his account in it; the allowance of oats may be 
but small for some time, and which migh be increased, together 
with the horse's exercise, as the hunting season approached. Run- 
ning horses might be treated in the same manner, according to the 
season in which they are to run, allowing both a greater length of 
time in the habitual practice of these exercises, together with pro- 
per feeding, dressing, &c. This treatment, together with the use 
of those alterative and diuretic medicines, which are usually given 
on these occasions, would render horses much stronger and fitter 
for these active exercises, without wearing out their constitutions 
by the repeated use of purging medicines, too frequently very inju- 
diciously administered. 

"I shall close this head with a case that happened here some 
years ago: — Two military gentlemen betted their horses to run 
against one another on Leith sands, for a considerable sum, and 
which was to take place three weeks after the bet ; the horses to 
be rode by their grooms. Captain R — 's was a pony about thirteen 
and a half hands ; Captain M — 's was a gelding about fifteen hands 
high ; both their grooms were bred at Newmarket, and were keen 
advocates for bleeding and purging (notwithstanding both the horses 
had been kept on dry food and in the best order, and the short in- 
terval of time for such treatment), in order to prepare them for 
running, &lc. Captain M — 's horse was blooded once, and purged 
twice; Captain R — 's was blooded once, and purged once; they 
were both sweated in the stable with a great load of clothes; at the 
same time, their stables, though separate, were kept uncommonly 
hot and close shut up, night and day, in the midst of summer. 
From this treatment, they soon lost their appetite for food, and, in 
about eight or ten days, they were hardly able t^undergo their 
exercise on the sands, their strength was so much ^oiausted by the 
treatment they had undergone, the constant and violent sweating 
in the stable, which of all evacuations, when continued, weakens a 
horse the most. In this situation, Captain R — gave up his bet as 
lost, together with his pony, for which he had a great value ; luckily 
for him, however, his groom, who was rather inclined to be corpu- 



52 INFLAMMATION. 

lent, had put himself under a course of physic, &c., in order to 
reduce his weight; the pony was then put under my care, with 
another groom to attend him; his clothinrv was immediately re- 
duced to a sino-je rucj, tlie stable windows were thrown open in 
order to admit fresh air, the pony recovered Ijis appetite for food, 
together with his strength, spirits, and activity; whilst his an- 
tagonist continued under the manner of treatment above mentioned. 
And, although bets were considerably against the pony at starting, 
yet he won with great ease, and which Captain R — frankly ac- 
knowledged was entirely owing to the difference of treatment they 
had been under. 

"I have hitherto confined my observations on the administering 
purging medicines to horses in health, in order to prepare them for 
active exercises, as running, hunting, &c. ; it remains to consider 
their use in diseases. 

" It would take up too much of the reader's time to enumerate 
the various forms of prescriptions that are in use for purging horses, 
or to confute the ridiculous encomiums bestowed on the variety of 
recipes that are handed about with a probatum est^ or attestation 
of their peculiar virtues in carrying off" this or that particular hu- 
mour, &c., as many of these compositions, when examined, appear 
to be a confused jumble of ingredients, calculated more for the 
apothecary's profit, than benefit to the patient ; and the bad effects 
arising from them in practice, are too apparent in a variety of cases 
which occur daily. 

" The substances that are used for purging or emptying the 
alimentary canal, may be distinguished into two kinds, the lenient, 
which open the belly gently ; and the drastic, which purge more 
briskly. The lenient ought always to be preferred when there 
appears any unusual commotion in the vascular system, which may 
easily be known from the quickness of the pulse, &c. ; tor, although 
purging medicines increase the motion of the pulse during their 
operation, yet they afterwards abate or lessen the motion of the 
blood, by drawing off' a considerable Quantity of the animal fluids by 
stool; they likewise clear the intestines of sharp stimulating matters 
or worms, which occasion an unusual degree of irritation in the 
system ; they likewise may be given with different intentions, as 
circumstances may require, in small doses, to keep the body open, 
and prevent an accumulation of faeces or dung in the intestines, 
which happens in diseases. In cases of frequent returns of the 
gripes or colic, but not during the fit, lest the guts should then be 
inflamed, they^pjiould therefore be given in the intervals, in order 
to prevent the return of the complaint. 

" But in cases where it is thought necessary to clear the intes- 
tines thoroughly in strong robust horses, the drastic purges may be 
given, provided there is no great commotion in the circulation of 
the blood at the time. Purging medicines are of great service in 
cases where the intestines appear to be loaded with viscid or thick 



PURGING. 53 

slime, or when it appears, by long- continued costiveness, that the 
peristaltic motion of the intestines is in some degree suspended ; in 
gross habits, especially where there is any tendency to swelling in 
the legs, attended with running sores, &c. ; in dropsical swellings 
in any part of the body ; in diseases of the head, rheums, or de- 
fluxions about the eyes; in rheumatic lameness, when the pains 
seem to move from one limb to another ; in the jaundice; in obsti- 
nate coughs, especially when the horse is of a full habit of body; 
in most cutaneous diseases, or when a number of small pimples or 
lumps arise on the skin, and suddenly disappear again, or when the 
lumps discharge a sharp fluid of an ichorous quality ; in plethoric 
or full habits, when the horse is intended for violent or active exer- 
cises, as running-, hunting, &c., in cases where it is judged neces- 
sary to lessen the general mass of fluids, or to divert them from 
flowing to any particular place in too great a quantity, as in inflam- 
mations of the lungs; in this last case, liquid purges are most 
proper, as ihey operate more expeditiously. In very delicate con- 
stitutions, rhubarb should constitute the greatest part of their pur- 
ging medicines ; they are likewise most proper in cases of want of 
appetite ; no doubt there may be other cases where purging medi- 
cines may be necessary ; but these must depend on the discretion 
and judgment of the prescriber. 

"On the other hand, it will be prudent to avoid giving purging 
medicines during extreme cold weather; likewise in all feverish 
complaints, when the pulse beats strong and quick, till such time 
as these symptoms are considerably abated; in all cases of extreme 
weakness, whether arising from fatigue or long continued diseases; 
in all lean dry habits, unless tli^cre is reason to apprehend it pro- 
ceeds from worms ; in cases of very obstinate costiveness, till such 
time as that complaint is in some degree removed by clysters, soft 
feeding, &c. ; in cases when a horse labours under any violent 
acute complaint; in diarrhoea or looseness. Aloetic purges, or 
those in which aloes enters into the composition, are to be avoided 
likewise in severe colics or griping pains, although liquid purges, 
that are quicker in their operation, and less irritating, may be given 
with safety in the intervals, when it is observed that horses are sub- 
ject to frequent attacks of this complaint. 

" Previous to the giving of purging medicines to horses, espe- 
cially to those which have been kept on hard meat, it will be pru- 
dent to keep them from all violent exercises for some days before 
the purge is given. If they are fat, and of a full habit, it will be 
necessary to draw some blood, to lower their feeding, and to give 
them that which is soft and relaxing, as boiled barley, mashes of 
bran, malt, &c. When horses are to be purged at grass, no prepa- 
ration is necessary, farther than, in plethoric or full habits, to treat 
them as above, observing, at the same time, that they be not costive, 
as this frequently happens although feeding on grass ; in that case, 



54 INFLAMMATION OP THE BRAIN. 

they are to be taken into the stable, and treated as if they had been 
on hard feed in f^. 

"In giving purging medicines to horses, it will always be most 
prudent to begin at first by giving mild lenient purges, in order to 
find out the strength of the constitution, &c., as very strong robust 
horses, to appearance, are sometimes easier purged than those of a 
more delicate make ; and it frequently happens, that the same 
horse is easier purged at one time than at another, according to the 
state of the stomach and intestines at the time the purge is given. 

"Mild purges are therefore much safer at all times, and of more 
benefit to the constitution, than too strong ones ; for the latter cause 
too great an irritation of the stomach and bowels ; hence follow 
griping pains, great sickness, &c., and sometimes inflammation of 
the intestines ; they likewise may occasion a superpurgation, by 
which the bowels are so much weakened, that they never afterwards 
recover their former tone ; and hence follow loss of appetite, gene- 
ral weakness, and, perhaps, an habitual diarrhoea or looseness. 

*' When it is intended to give mercury with purging medicines, 
which is necessary in cases of worms, or as an alterative, it is pro- 
per to give the mercury in the evening, and the purging-bali the 
next morning, as formerly directed. In this case, great care should 
be taken that the horse be not exposed to cold, nor suffered to drink 
very cold water, although he may be indulged in plenty of water 
milk-warm, mixed with a little oatmeal." 



CHAPTER ir. 

PHRENITIS (inflammation OF THE BRAIN). 

The term staggers, by which several of the diseases of the head 
used to be designated, should now be completely laid aside. It was 
derived from the staggering gait which frequently accompanied 
these affections, either in some period, or as a general characteristic 
of them; but other diseases besides these primarily of the head are 
occasionally accompanied by symptoms that may easily be con- 
founded with them; and it is somewhat disgraceful in the present 
state of the veterinary art, to confound together diseases of the same 
organ which materially differ in their cause, their progress, and 
their result. 

Inflammation of the brain is either that of its substance or mem- 
branes, or both. It is a determination of blood to the brain, produced 
by over-exertion in close and sultry weather, especially if the horse 
is gross and fat, and has lately had only a little work. It is some- 
times the consequence of other diseases: it is the metastasis, or 



INFLAMMATION OF THE BRAIN. 55 

change of inflammation from one organ to another. Inflammation 
has suddenly left the bowels, the foot, or even the lungs, and 
attacked the head ; but it is oftener connected with some affection 
of the stomach. 

The first symptoms are those of compression of the brain (sleepy 
staggers). The horse is dull, hanging his head as if he were going 
to sleep, or half asleep. In the midst of eating, a lethargy will 
come over him, and he will droop his head, with his tongue hang- 
ing out of his mouth, or the saliva dribbling from it, and he will 
stagger and almost fall. If he is suddenly roused, he will look 
vacantly around him, and slumber again. If he falls, he will appear 
to be frightened and scramble up, but it will be to wander, and to 
stagger and to fall again. It is determination of blood to the head, 
pressing upon the origins of the nerves, and producing this half 
unconsciousness. 

This continues for twelve or twenty-four hours, and then, 
suddenly, the scene changes. T-he horse is all alive, his ears are 
pricked, his eyes are glaring, he is shifting his posture every 
moment, pawing and stamping. For a little while he seems to 
know where he is and what he is about, but that soon passes over: 
his flanks heave, and his nostrils expand, and he whinnies, and roars, 
and dashes, and plunges, and bites, and kicks, without object, and 
without consciousness. There are periods of remission. He 
exhausts himself by his violent efforts, and lies stupid, or seemingly 
asleep; and so he goes on, until he has probably ruptured some 
vessel of the brain, and caused greater effusion and pressure, and 
then perfect stupor ensues; or he wears himself out by the violence 
of his struggles. 

If he is seen in this violent state, there can be no doubt about the 
disease : it is pure phrenitis, or inflammation of the brain. Then, 
with due regard to his own safety, the practitioner must contrive, if 
he can, to open both jugulars, and to let the blood flow as long as it 
will. The only hope is in producing faintness and temporary 
collapse. If it can be effected, in some moment of comparative 
quietude, a purgative should be administered in the form of a strong 
solution of aloes, with croton farina. The following is the best 
formula for this occasional and quickly-operating purgative. It is 
that which the surgeon in much practice should always keep by 
him, for it will remain undecomposed for several weeks, or with 
merely the precipitation of the aloes, which may be easily shaken 
up again. 

RECIPE (No. 10). 

Strong Physic Drink. 

Take — Barbadoes aloes, two ounces; 

Gum arable, one ounce; both being powdered. 
Pour on them a pint of boiling water. A portion of the aloes will 



56 VERTIGO (megrims). 

be dissolved, and the greater part of the remainder suspended by the 
solution of the gum. Four ounces of this may be taken, and ten grains 
of the farina of the croton nut rubbed down with a little of it, and the 
rest cautiously added, and the mixture given every six hours until it 
operates. 

If this cannot be administered in consequence of its bulk, forty 
grains of the croton nut or forty drops of croton oil should be given 
in the most convenient form possible. If the horse seems to recover 
a little from the attack, he must be let alone; his diet being spare, 
and consisting chiefly of mashes or a little green meat, and his 
bowels kept open by small doses of aloes. A setrm may be inserted 
at the back of the head after the violence of the symptoms are 
abated. 

I know but of two diseases with which it is at all possible that 
this complaint can be confounded, and they are colic and madness: 
but in the first he strikes and stamps his belly, he rolls rather than 
plunges, and looks piteously at his flanks, and is perfectly con- 
scious; and in madness, although he plunges strangely about, and 
does much mischief, there is method and perfect consciousness in 
that mischief 

The most unpleasant and puzzling state of the case is when the 
stupid Jit is on the horse. It is absolutely necessary to get at the 
cause of that stupor, or the mode of treatment cannot be determined 
on. If the horse is at grass, the owner or practitioner i^hould care- 
fully inquire whether he has been lately turned on richer pasture; 
or, if he is in the stable, whether he may have got at the corn-bin, 
or gorged himself with what ought to have been the portion of his 
companions; or whether he had been lately worked long and hard 
on an empty stomach, and then fully or more than usually fed ; or 
whether he has laboured under any other inflammatory affection 
that has lately and almost suddenly ceased, \i' neither of these 
things appears to have happened, it is either the commencement of 
phrenitis, or it is pure apoplexy, or simple determination of blood to 
the head, and in either case the course of the practitioner is plain. 



CHAPTER III. 

VERTIGO (megrims,) 

This is the mildest form under which determination of blood to 
the head, or congestion of blood in the vessels of the brain, siiows 
itself. A horse will commence his journey apparently well, and 
pleasantly perform a portion of it: but the day is hot — he is a little 
too full of flesh — he has not been lately in full work — or he has been 
driven a little faster than usual — or he wears a collar a little too 



t 

VERTIGO (megrims). 57 

tight: all at once he begins to falter — he shakes his head repeatedly 
— looks around hirn half unconsciously, and perhaps stops short and 
trembles. If the driver is aware of what is the matter, and will 
give him a minute's rest, he will sometimes recover and go on 
again, although not quite so freely as before. But at other times, 
either without warning, or 'any warning that the driver has 
observed, he drops — he lies for two, three, or five minutes appa- 
rently insensible, and then scrambles up, and goes on again ; or he 
falls, and violent struggles commence, which, however, in a few 
minutes subside. The horse gets up, looks wildly about him, and 
continues his journey, yet somewhat oppressed and exhausted : but 
he will occasionally drop and die at once. 

The causes of this are what have been stated in the beginning of 
the description of the symptoms, and the method of giving present 
relief is simple and effectual enough. With a lancet, or a penknife, 
cut deeply across the bars, and set them bleeding, and the giddiness 
will speedily go off. It may be prudent to look to the collar, and 
slacken it a little, and let down the bearing-rein a hole or two. 

When the horse gets home he should be well mashed, and, if he 
can be spared, a dose of physic should be given, and afterwards a 
little green meat afforded him. When the physic has set, some 
alterative medicine will be serviceable, a ball of which may be 
given every night, for ten days or a fortnight. 

RECIPE (No. 11). 

Alterative Ball. 

Take — Powdered nitre, three drachms ; 
Sulphur, two drachms ; 

Black sulphuret of antimony (black antimony,) two drachms; 
Linseed meal, two drachms : 

Beat them into a mass with palm oil. 

Turning: out for a month or six weeks will always be useful ; but 
a horse that has once had megrims will be too subject to them 
again, and after several attacks will be speedily disposed of by the 
prudent man. 



58 



CHAPTER IV. 

H STOMACH STAGGERS (INDIGESTION.) 

The symptoms of this disease have been sufficiently described at 
page 54, where the various indications of the early stage of inflam- 
mation of the brain passed in review : in this case, however, the 
staggering about and sleepiness, and unconsciousness, with hard 
breathing, and fixed staring eye continue, and the animal becomes 
more and more insensible and helpless: these drowsy symptoms 
then sometimes subside, and are succeeded by violence, of the same 
kind as that of phrenitis, but not to so great an extent : this is 
followed again by stupor, and the horse dies. 

It is essentially necessary to ascertain the cause of this disease, 
if it can possibly be done. A very frequent one is over-distention 
of the stomach. The horse may have got loose in the night, and 
filled himself with corn, or beans, or chaff*; or he may have been 
worked longer and harder than usual on the preceding day, and 
have had a double feed given him at night ; and the powers of the 
stomach having been exhausted with those of the frame, it is unable 
to contract upon its contents, so as to expel them. If no positive 
information can be obtained with regard to these things, the appear- 
ance of the horse may guide in some degree as to the probability of 
their having occurred ; for he will be evidently bloated and swollen, 
and the lethargy will be more complete than when it arises from 
other causes. 

This disease has often made its appearance in large establish- 
ments, where horses have been kept long fasting, and then allowed 
an unlimited quantity of dry food. In these cases the stomach has 
first been weakened by this long fasting, and then distended beyond 
its power of contracting, and the brain has been affected either from 
sympathy, or from the pressure of the stomach on the chest obstruct- 
ing the circulation of the blood. 

This disease, however, will sometimes occur without this strange 
distention of the stomach ; yet not without evident affection of this 
viscus. When the hours of feeding are irregular, the stomach 
becomes weakened by being long empty, and is oppressed even by 
a usual meal of ordinary food. This happens to farm-horses after 
too long a day's ploughing, and especially if the food with which 
they are afterwards supplied is not very good. It is foolish economy 
to keep the half-mouldied and poisonous provender of the farm for 
home-consumption. Old horses are particularly subject to stomach 
staggers from this cause; and they are so, if, when the stomach has 
been debilitated by too long fasting, they should happen to get a 



RABIES (madness). 59 

few days' rest, and to be fed somewhat better than usual. The 
weakened stomach will not be able to bear the unusual stimulus, 
and indigestion will ensue. In other cases it has prevailed as an 
epidemic, and appeared amongst horses at grass as well as those in 
the stable; and though the symptoms have been very similar, yet 
they could not be referred to a distended stomach, although they 
might in great measure be owing to a loss of energy in this organ 
from the presence of some deleterious principle. 

The ordinary cause of this disease may be considered to be indi- 
gestion, from distention of the stomach with food, and sometimes 
with gas. The treatment, therefore, must be principally directed to 
the removal of the offending body. If^he pulse is strong, and fever 
or inflammation is denoted, copious bleeding will be required ; but 
if there seems depression of the system, blood-letting should be 
abstained from. Liquids should be thrown into the stomach by 
means of Read's Syringe, with a view of diluting its contents, and 
this should be followed by physic, such as the draught. No. 10, page 
55, to which may be added an additional dram of ginger, and two 
of chloride of lime, so as to condense any gas that may produce or 
assist in producing the distention of the stomach. The bowels 
should be relaxed by frequent injections. 

It will not be advisable to repeat the aloes, lest it should accumu- 
late and produce inflammation ; but in its stead, a pint of linseed oil 
with two drachms of gentian should be given every six hours until 
the bowels are properly opened. When this is accomplished, the 
diet should consist of green food, carrots, or mashes in sparing quan- 
tities, and the following ball may be administered daily. 

RECIPE (No. 12). 

Alterative Tonic Ball after Indigestion. 

Take — Powdered nitre, two drachms ; 

Sulphur, one drachm and a half; 
Physic mass, one drachm ; 
Powdered gentian, one drachm and a half; 
Powdered ginger, one drachm; 
Beat them together with palm oil, and make them into a ball. 



CHAPTER V. 

RABIES (madness). 

There is a disease, and one of the nervous system, which may 
be occasionally confounded with phrenitis, and which may now be 
conveniently considered, viz., Rabies. 



60 RABIES (madness). 

If a horse has been bitten by a mad dog, or his muzzle (the an- 
gles of the lips having been galled by the bit) has been licked by 
one of those dogs which are too often and foolishly harboured about 
the stable, and which may have become mad, he will mo.st probably, 
in his turn, also become rabid. The disease will suddenly appear, 
and at the commencement bear considerable resemblance to phre- 
nitis. The horse will stop, look about him, stagger, and fall. He 
will immediately get up again, and proceed on his journey, but 
presently he will begin to stagger once more, and the sooner he is 
got home the better. The difference between rabies and phrenitis, 
in this stage of the disease, is that the rabid horse is perfectly con- 
scious, or only a little wild : however, before twenty-four hours 
have passed, he usually becomes violent to an extraordinary degree, 
stamping, kicking, biting, tearing, and demolishing every thing 
within his reach. Here again the difference between the tvvo 
complaints is sufficiently manifest: the rabid horse knows what he 
is about, and is trying to do mischief: the other is struggling and 
plunging involuntarily. 

There is no remedy but the bullet, and the sooner that is applied 
the better. 

Although hydrophobia, or the dread of water, is the characteristic 
of this disease in the human being, it is singular that, in the do- 
mesticated animals, and particularly in the dog, by whom the dis- 
ease is oftenest communicated to men, it should have no existence. 
The horse, however, is an exception to this, for in most cases he 
does exhibit something approaching to hydrophobia — either he is 
unwilling to drink, or the head is violently snatched from the pail in 
the midst of his drinking, and the muscles of the face are strangely 
distorted, or he trembles from head to foot, or sometimes falls to the 
ground convulsed at the sound of falling water. 

When a horse is known to have been bitten by a mad dog, the 
wound should either be cut out, or the lunar caustic applied to it, 
so as to destroy every part of it; and, if this is carefully done, all 
danger will be removed. The lunar caustic, if it can be made fairly 
to reach the bottom of the wound, is the most effectual preventive: 
a skilful veterinary surgeon should, however, be here employed. 
Medicine will be completely useless, and all the pretended nos- 
trums, which are celebrated in various parts of the country, are 
mere delusions. After the disease has once appeared in the horse, 
no one should be permitted to hazard his life in the attempt to ad- 
minister medicine of any kind; and it should otherwise be recol- 
lected that the attendant on the rabid horse is always in danger, 
and that the saliva that falls from his mouth, or is thrown furiously 
about, if received upon a wound, or the slightest abrasion, may 
produce as dreadful effects as those from the saliva or bite of a 
rabid dog. 

Having thus considered all the varieties of inflammation of the 
brain, we will next dispose of the other parts of the head. 



61 vn 

CHAPTER VI. 

INFLAMMATION OF THE EYE. 

This is one of the most annoying- maladies that the practitioner 
has to do with. A horse, and particularly a young horse, may be 
perfectly well on a certain day, but when he is examined on the 
following morning, his eyelids are swelled ; they almost cover the 
eye; they are hot and tender; the eye itself is cloudy, and the 
conjunctiva covering the white that surrounds the coloured part of 
the eye, and the lining of the lid, are red: there is a considerable 
flow of tears, and the horse hangs his head, and is in evident pain. 
It will be always prudent to examine, in the first place, whether 
this may have been the effect of accident; whether the horse may 
have been bitten by his companion, or struck by his attendant, or 
whether a bit of hay or husk of oat may have got into the eyes : in 
the majority of cases, however, nothing of this kind will be found. 
Sometimes the horse will have catarrh, and discharge from the 
nose; but at other times the eye alone will be the part affected, 
and that without any appreciable cause. 

Young horses, about four or five years old, are most subject to it; 
they are approaching to or have reached their full growth, and they 
have a great deal of superfluous humour about them, and consequent 
tendency to inflammation. Black horses are said to be more sub- 
ject to inflammation of the eyes than those of any other colour. 
Now and then it will be very prevalent in the neighbourhood, or 
two or three horses in the same stable will be attacked at the same 
time: it is epidemic: it is dependent on some peculiar atmospheric 
influence ; but it does not seem to be in any case infectious. 

Improper management may lay the foundation of this disease. 
If the horse is kept in a hot and close stable, and his eyes daily 
exposed for many an hour to the stimulating ammoniacal fumes 
that arise from the urine, and which a person going into a stable in 
the morning cannot bear many minutes without inconvenience, it 
is easy to suppose that they will be both irritated and weakened, 
and disposed to take on inflammation from very slight causes. 
This, however, prepares for the disease, but does not produce it: 
for it is seen in stables that are not so hot and close, and it some- 
times occurs in a colt at grass. There is no complaint that is more 
plainly and probably hereditary; and it has spread over whole dis- 
tricts from the incautious use of a blind stallion, or one that had 
serious disease of the eyes. 

The practitioner or the owner of the animal will carefully 
examine the circumstances under which the disease appears. If it 

5 



62 INFLAMMATION OF THE EYE. 

is connected with cold, he will treat the horse as for catarrh ; and 
generally, the inflammation of the eye will disappear with the 
general tendency of inflammation. If there is considerable heat, 
and swelling, and weeping, and impatience of light, it may be as 
well to do something to the eye, besides the internal treatment 
usually adopted for catarrh. Fomentations of warm water may be 
applied. Warm applications agree with the eye of the horse much 
better than cold ones. Frequent fomentations, and the eye being 
left uncovered, and the stable darkened as much as possible, will be 
more useful than any wetted pad kept in contact with the eye, 
which often increases the irritation by its pressure, and the heat 
which it soon acquires or imparts. 

If the inflammation is otherwise than slight, the practitioner 
should open the eyes, and turn the lids upwards and downwards, and 
lightly scarify them with a keen lancet. The abstraction of even 
a few drops of blood from the immediate seat of inflammation will 
often be productive of the very best effects. The fomentations 
should then be more diligently continued, in order to encourage the 
bleeding. 

Some sedative application may afterwards be made to the eye. 
Either of the following lotions may be tried: but there is often a 
peculiarity or caprice about this complaint; and that which will 
succeed in abating inflammation at one time will have no effect at 
another. It would be proper to apply them in the order in which 
they stand : — 

RECIPE (No. 13). 

Goulard. Wash for the Eyes. 

Take — Extract of lead, one drachm; 

Distilled or the softest running water, eight ounces. 

RECIPE (No. 14). 

Anodyne Wash for the Eyes. 

Take — Laudanum or tincture of digitalis (the latter to be preferred), 
half an ounce ; 
Distilled or soft water, eight ounces. 

These must not be wasted about the outside of the eye, but, with 
a camel-hair pencil, or a bit of clean sponge or rag, they must be 
introduced into the eye. 

If these lotions should not remove or abate the complaint, that 
which the human practitioner finds so useful, but which is not 
always so beneficial in the horse, may be tried — viz., the Vinous 
Tincture of Opium ; two or three drops of which should be got into 
the corner of the eye by means of a camel-hair brush. 

If, however, there cannot at the beginning be traced any con- 



INFLAMMATION OF THE EYE. 63 

nexion between this inflammation of the eye and cold or catarrh, 
and if it seems to bid defiance to these applications, it may be 
suspected that it is that peculiar specific inflammation which is the 
bane of the eye of the horse, and in so many instances terminates in 
blindness; and the practitioner sets to work to attack the disease 
more in good earnest. 

He administers a dose of physic, not because he often sees any 
immediate good eflfect from it, but because it seems to be one of the 
means by which he has the fairest chance of success ; and he bleeds 
if he imagines that there is any fever ; and, if the inflammation is 
very intense, he bleeds largely from the jugular, and to this he adds 
local bleeding. He gets as much blood as he can from the angular 
vein, that vein which he finds at the inner corner of the eye, and 
which comes from the orbit of the eye, for by bleeding there he will 
be most likely to unload the congested vessels of the eye. He con- 
tinues diligently, and for weeks together, the local applications just 
recommended ; giving a fair trial to each, and changing them as 
each seems to lose its effect; and he inserts a seton under the jaws, 
to which he perhaps adds a seton in the cheek ; but the former is 
the more effectual. He regularly administers the medicines which 
he would use in cases of fever, and with a view to lower the circu- 
lation everywhere, and, among the rest, in this inflamed part. The 
best fever ball that can be given to the horse, and which is appli- 
cable to almost all cases, is the following : — 

RECIPE (No. 15). 

Fever Ball, 

Take — Powdered digitalis, one drachm ; 
Emetic tartar, one drachm ; 
Nitre, three drachms ; 
Sulphur, one drachm ; 
Linseed meal, two drachms : 
Beat together with palm oil. 

There is one thing which he should never do, although it is the 
continual practice of the farrier. The haw partakes of the general 
inflammation, and is enlarged. It is drawn over the eye in order to 
protect it from the light, and, on account of its enlargement, it 
cannot again be retracted. To the ignorant observer it would seem 
to be an Injury, and a nuisance to the eye. Unnaturally protruded 
as it is, it is doing good, for it is partially sheltering the eye from 
the light; and when the general inflammation is abated, it will 
become of its natural size, and return to its place of concealment. 
If the practitioner cuts it away, he may give a little relief from the^ 
bleeding which will follow, but he would give a great deal more if 
he had scarified the eyelid, or opened the angular vein; and he 
would not have deprived the horse of the means of defending his eye 



64 INFLAMMATION OF THE EYE. 

from the dust of the roads, or wiping away the dust when it does 
get into the eye, or entailed upon him a degreeof suffering of which 
the pain that he feels when his eyes are annoyed by a cloud of dust, 
will give him no very indistinct idea. The haw is no unnatural 
excrescence produced by inflammation: it is the mere enlargement 
of a very useful part, which has swollen from participatmg with the 
surrounding inflammation, and which will resume its natural appear- 
ance, and size, and usefulness, when that inflammation abates. 

After a great deal of trouble, and the exercise of no little pa- 
tience, perhaps the eye gets better: but there remains a cloudiness 
about it, and of a very singular character. It is thicker to-day, and 
in a great measure clearing up to-morrow ; on the third day be- 
coming more opaque than ever, and at length being in a manner 
fixed. The sugar, or salt, or pounded glass of the farrier will renew 
the inflammation, and increase the opacity oftener than diminish it. 
A weak solution of corrosive sublimate will be the best application 
here. 

RECIPE (No. 16). 

Wash for Cloudiness of the Eye. 

Take — Corrosive sublimate, four grains; 

Rectified spirits of wine, twenty drops : 
Rub them together in a glass or marble mortar, until the sublimate is 
dissolved ; and add. 

Water, four ounces : 
Get a little of this into the eye three or four times every day. 

A slight degree of inflammation, with redness of the conjunctiva, 
and weakness of the eye, and weeping, may yet remain. The dis- 
ease has assumed a chronic form, and must be combated by stimu- 
lants. The following will oftener succeed, perhaps, than any 
other : — 

RECIPE (No. 17). 

Wash for Chronic Inflammation of the Eye. 

Take — Sulphate of zinc, eight grains; 
Water, four ounces : 
Rub them together until (he zinc is dissolved; bathe the eyes fre- 
quently with the lotion, introducing it as much as possible into them. 

At length, however, the practitioner seems to have succeeded, 
and the eye is once more clear and bright. He must not exult too 
soon. Three or four months pass over, and, too often, the disease 
again appears, and attacks either the same eye, or perhaps the 
other. This attack is got rid of with greater difficulty; and after 
that another follows, and the horse ultimately loses one eye or both. 



INFLAMMATION OF THE EYE. OO 

Hence comes the necessity of being aware of the traces, oftentimes 
difficult to be detected, which this complaint leaves behind it. The 
slightest cloudiness of the cornea will engender suspicion that the 
eye has not been at all times right; and this will be confirmed, if 
the eyes, or rather the opening of the eyelids, are different in size: 
if one of the lids is thicker than the other, and particularly towards 
the inner angle; and there is a little puckering there, or a dim line 
around the cornea, and perhaps a very minute and scarcely detec- 
table spot in the centre of it, — a haziness rather than a spot, — and 
faint gossamer lines radiating from it. 

It is important to distinguish between these appearances and 
those caused by a blow or other external injury. In the latter case, 
after the inflammation has subsided, there is frequently left an opa- 
city of some part of the cornea, sometimes extending over half the 
eye. It will be found, however, that the internal parts of the eye 
are perfectly clear and free from disease, and that distinct vision is 
enjoyed except in that part where the opacity exists, and which on 
examination is found on the conjunctiva and external part of the 
cornea alone. Sometimes when the injury proceeds from the lash 
of a whip, one or two superficial streaks will be found across the 
eye, and the other parts perfectly clear. 

The natural process of the disease is the spread of the inflamma- 
tion to the membrane that covers the crystalline lens; and that 
becoming opaque, and the inflammation and opacity still extending 
into and through the lens, this is termed cataract ; the general 
effect of it is blindness — irremediable blindness; for if, in despite 
of the power of the retractor muscle, the eye could be brought for- 
ward and fixed, and the pearly lens extracted, the horse could have 
no distinct vision, as he would be deprived of that which refracted 
the rays, and brought them to a focus, and formed the picture of 
surrounding objects on the retina. 

A very considerable change has lately taken place in the opinion 
of veterinary surgeons on the subject of cataract. It is supposed to 
be capable of forming, and, in fact, often forms, in much less time 
than was once thought to be possible. It may appear, and become 
almost perfectly formed in the space of five or six days. 

It is also ascertained that cataract may appear without any pre- 
vious active inflammation, without any apparent disease of the eyes. 
It is now still further believed, or, more properly speaking, fully 
proved, that partial cataract, that is, slight specks or spots on the 
lens, or rather its capsule, do occasionally disappear. 

When a cataract supervenes after inflammation of the eye, it is 
generally the case that the inflammation does not again recur; and 
if the cataract takes place in one eye only, the other is generally 
preserved. So likewise, if the cataract is partial, that is, still ad- 
mitting some degree of vision, the eye is likely to remain in this 
state afterwards. This is indeed one of the most favourable termi- 
nations of ophthalmia : for too frequently we find a general disorgan- 



66 INFLAMMATION OF THE EYE. 

ization of the structure of the eye existing either with or without 
cataract. 

It will easily be seen what alteration this must produce in the 
decisions of veterinary men on cataract, when regarded as one of 
the species of unsoundness to which the horse is subject. 

GUTTA SERENA, OR GLASSY EYE. 

There is another species of blindness, which, although not the 
result of inflammation, should here be noticed. The cornea is per- 
fectly transparent, but the iris seems to be in a constant state of 
contraction: the pupil is permanently dilated, and more of the 
transparent humours being seen, the eye has a peculiar bright and 
glassy appearance. The same influence, or want of influence — the 
same disease which palsies the muscles of the iris, renders the 
retina, or that expansion of the optic nerve at (he back of the eye 
which is the seat of vision, insensible, and so the horse is blind. 
This is frequently overlooked, and especially when confined to one 
eye. I have known some of the best judges of the horse astonished 
M'hen they first discovered a blindness, which must have existed 
many weeks or months. Gutta serena is usually the consequence 
of pressure on the brain. If a horse has had several attacks of 
staggers, and ultimately recovers, yet this species of blindness will 
often be left behind, which no operation can remove, and which is 
beyond the reach of medicine. 

When, however, Gutta serena, or amaurosis, is the consequence 
either of disordered bowels or other disease of the viscera, or of 
blows or injuries of the head, it will frequently disappear with the 
removal of the cause which produced it. Gutla serena is a disease 
almost peculiar to the draught-horse. On account of the tightness 
of the collar preventing the return of the blood from the head, he 
is most subject to those accumulations of it on the base of the brain, 
which, pressing upon the optic nerves, produce palsy of them. 
These horses are also very irregularly fed, and nothing more dis- 
poses to staggers than the loo suddenly overgorging the stomach 
after long continued fasting. The introduction of the nose-bag has 
contributed more than any other thing to render this disease much 
more unfrequent than it used to be. 



67 



CHAPTER VII. 

INFLAMMATION OP THE TONGUE — BLAIN. 

This disease is neither so frequent nor so fatal in the horse as it 
is in cattle; but it does sometimes occur, and the nature of it is 
frequently misunderstood. The horse will refuse his food, hang 
his head, and a considerable quantity of ropy fluid will be discharged 
from the mouth. If the lips are closed, he resists the opening of his 
mouth to such a degree, that the suspicion arises that he haslocked- 
jaw. If the mouth is a little open, it will require great force to 
make him close it; and this also will cause the idea of locked-jaw 
to occur to the mind of the practitioner or owner. The observation, 
however, that there is not the peculiar attitude and gait, which will 
hereafter be described, as characteristic of locked-jaw, will prevent 
every careful person from being misled. 

On examining the mouth, the tongue will be found considerably 
enlarged, and, running along the side of it, there will be a reddish 
or dark-purple bladder, which sometimes protrudes between the 
teeth. The neighbouring salivary glands are enlarged, and the 
discharge of saliva is very great; while the soreness of the swelled 
and blistered part causes the horse obstinately to resist every motion 
of the jaws. 

The cause of this inflammation of the tongue is unknown. Some- 
times it seems to proceed from indigestion ; in these cases the 
breath and the faeces are foetid. At other times it accompanies 
various inflammatory complaints. It is seen in violent catarrh, or 
epidemic or general fever. It is a frequent accompaniment of 
locked-jaw. 

The cure of it is very simple — the bladder must be deeply lanced 
from end to end. There will not be any great flow of blood, for the 
tumour seems to be chiefly filled with a red-coloured gelatinous 
fluid, which will slowly ooze out, after v^^hich, in the course of four- 
and-twenty hours, the horse will often be relieved, if not completely 
well. If he can be spared from his work, a dose of physic will re- 
move the stomach affection, and any slight degree of fever that 
might have existed : in all cases, a few fever balls (Recipe No. 15, 
p. 63) will be useful after the physic. 

If the disease is neglected, the swelling will at length burst, and 
corroding ulcers will remain along the side of the tongue, eating 
deeply under it, being exceedingly offensive, and also very difficult 
to heal. The stench may be removed by a solution of the chloride 
of lime, and this will at the same time usually give a healthy 
appearance to the ulcers. 



68 INFLAMMATION OF THE PALATE. 

RECIPE (No. 18). 

Solution of Chloride of Lime. 

Take — One drachm of the chloride of lime in powder, and dissolve it in 
a pint of water. Keep the bottle closely stopped when not in use. 

In the whole class of horse-medicines there is not a more useful 
application for foul ulcers of every kind than the solution of the 
chloride of lime. To dispose the ulcers more readily to ileal, a 
wash composed of equal parts of tincture of myrrh and water will 
be very useful. An infusion of catechu will afford a cheaper, and 
often as efficacious an application. 

RECIPE (No. 19). 

Infusion of Catechu. 

On two ounces of powdered catechu pour a quart of boiling- water. 
Keep it in some covered vessel for an hour, occasionally shaking it : 
then pour, off the clear liquor, add an ounce of spirit of wine, and bottle 
for use. 

Should both of these fail, the solution of common alum may be 
resorted to. It is a powerful astringent in these cases: but it some- 
times corrugates the skin of the mouth to such a degree, and 
renders it so harsh, that the horse refuses his food. 

RECIPE (No. 20). 

Solution of Alum. 

Dissolve two ounces of powdered alum in a quart of water, and keep 
it for use. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

INFLAMMATION OF THE PALATE — LAMPAS. 

The palate of the horse, although a fibro-cartilaginous substance, 
is, and especially in young horses, very subject to inflammation. 
Until the second teeth are grown, and sometimes after that, the 
bars at the fore part of the palate swell, and become hot and tender; 
and when they become on a level with the front upper teeth, or 
even extend below them, they seriously interfere with the feeding 
of the horse, on account of the pain which he feels when the food 



INFLAMMATION OF THE PALATE. 69 

presses upon them. He loses his appetite, or is afraid to eat, and 
the food falls half-chewed from his mouth. 

The principal cause of this affection of the bars is the irritable 
state of the parts until the process of dentition is completed, and 
also occasionally some temporary indigestion. 

A great deal more is made of this disHise than is necessary. If 
it is merely a trifling- enlargement of the bars, it will generally 
subside after a few mashes, with one dose of laxative and two or 
three of fever medicine; but if the bars are level with the teeth or 
below them, and the horse quids his hay, some blood should be 
taken from the part. The bars should be cut across, and, if they 
are cut deep enough, plenty of blood will flow. The bleeding may 
be encouraged as long as the surgeon pleases, depending on the 
degree of enlargement and fever; and will usually be stopped at 
pleasure by the pressure of a sponge charged with cold water on 
the part. 

This is not recommended as a proper way of bleeding in ordinary 
cases, for the quantity of blood taken away cannot be measured, and 
in a very few instances, when the palatine artery has been divided, 
the bleeding has been arrested with considerable difficulty. If, how- 
ever, the incisions are made about an inch from the front teeth, and 
in the direction of a line extending backwards from between the 
central and second teeth on either side, not only will more blood be 
obtained, because the principal vessels lie there, but, by means of a 
string tied round the front teeth and across the palate, a compress 
may be easily placed over the incision. 

The farrier usually recommends the searing of the bars with a 
hot iron, — a most injudicious and barbarous operation. The animal 
must be sadly tortured in order to burn down the enlarged bar, and 
after all it will not be perfectly done. 

Connected with the lampas, and often existing at the same time, 
is what is commonly termed bags or washes, which is enlargement 
of the membrane lining the cheeks, and particularly that adjoining 
the anterior molar teeth, so that when the horse attempts to masti- 
cate, this membrane gets between the teeth, and occasions much 
pain. When this materially interferes with the feeding, a portion 
of the membrane should be excised with a pair of scissors or a 
bistoury, the bleeding from which will lessen the inflammation, and 
as the wound cicatrizes it will contract the membrane, and prevent 
it from interfering with the teeth. 



70 



f HAPTER IX. 

INFLAMMATION OF THE MEMBRANE OF THE NOSE — CORYZA. 

The essence and nearly the whole of every cold, at its commence- 
ment, is inflammation of the membrane of the nose, and character- 
ized by redness of that membrane, increased discharge from the 
nose, weeping from the eyes, a little general heaviness, and a slight 
degree of fever. It is that which a warm mash or two, a comfort- 
able stable, and warm clothing will frequently remove without any 
medical treatment; but which, if neglected, degenerates into 
catarrh, cold, sore throat, or inflammation of the lungs. There is, 
however, another kind of inflammation of the nose, of a very singu- 
lar nature — it is truly a specific one, and demands most serious 
attention. 



CHAPTER X. 

SPECIFIC INFLAMMATION OF THE MEMBRANE OF THE NOSE — 

GLANDERS. 

This is a sad and intractable disease, and destroys thousands of 
horses every year. At its commencement it seems to be strictly 
an inflammation of the membrane of the nose; not characterized, 
indeed, by the usual florid red of inflammation, but by a leaden or 
purple colour, sometimes of a very pale hue, and generally so at the 
commencement, but afterwards becoming darker. This is accompa- 
nied by a very slight discharge from the nose ; generally from one 
nostril only, and that most frequently the left one. At first it can 
scarcely be distinguished from the natural moisture of the nose, — it 
is thin and transparent like it. It seems to be the natural moisture 
a little increased in quantity. It may continue in a deceitful state 
for many weeks or months, and even two or three years. There is 
no cough, no loss of appetite, no apparent illness of any kind, 
scarcely any enlargement of the glands beneath the lower jaw, and 
yet the horse is glandered, and capable of communicating the 
infection. 

By degrees the disease proceeds. The discharge becomes 
decidedly, although to a very slight extent, increased ; but it is still 
watery and transparent, and is to be distinguished from the natural 



GLANDERS. 71 

secretion only by a slight degree of stickiness when it is rubbed 
between the fingers. It is also distinguished from the discharge of 
catarrh by this stickiness, and by its being constant, while the other 
varies at different times, and is usually thrown off in quantities more 
or less accumulated. The glands beneath the jaw sympathize with 
the membrane of the nose, and they enlarge, and the horse is 
jugged. This enlargement of glanders is distinguished from that 
which often accompanies catarrh, by the glands not being so hot 
and tender, and, more particularly, by their being more fixed, and 
seeming to adhere sometimes to the jaw-bone, and at others, hard 
and firm, and unattended by any enlargement of the surrounding 
parts. 

By degrees the discharge increases; it becomes more adhesive; 
it sticks about the nostril ; it is still often confined to one nostril, and 
the hardened gland is found on that side alone. It is now, perhaps, 
recognised for the first time, by the owner of the horse, or his 
servants; but the mischief is done — it is highly probable that no 
medical care can now save the animal, and he may have propagated 
the disease among his companions. 

Hence the necessity of attending to the very earliest symptoms 
of this complaint, and seriously regarding, and with much suspicion, 
the slightest increased discharge from the nose, or livid or purple 
colour of its membrane, whether it be accompanied by enlarged 
submaxillary glands, or even if no tumour whatever can be de- 
tected. 

The disease may even now be long stationary. Too many of 
these horses, with decided glanderous discharge from the nostril, 
and adherent glands under the jaw, draw our wagons, or are em- 
ployed in agriculture; and they are otherwise in good health and 
do their work well, and that for months and years. This should 
not be permitted, for the contagion is often widely spread by means 
of these horses. 

In the next step the discharge is rapidly augmented ; from being 
mucous or glairy, yet transparent or white, and usually without 
smeJl, it becomes brown or bloody, and mixed with pus, and often 
foetid. If the nose is then examined, chancres are seen upon the 
membrane of the cartilaginous septum between the nostrils. They 
are plainly not the excoriations which are sometimes observed in 
violerft catarrh, but they are small, distinct, circular ulcers, with a 
rounded edge and an uneven corroded base. 

Even after this the horse may for a while retain his condition, 
appetite, and capability for work ; but the period is uncertain, and 
often short. The constitution begins to be affected. The virus 
which is secreted by the ulcers is absorbed, and empoisons the 
whole frame. The horse begins to lose flesh, and appetite, and 
spirits; the oily secretion of the skin disappears, and the coat is 
unthrifty and pen-feathered; the inflammation extends down the 
windpipe, and the lungs are affected, and a harsh and hollow cough 



72 GLANDERS. 

bespeaks the mischief which is going on there. The ulcers extend 
in the nose ; they become larger and more numerous; the membrane 
thickens; the nostril and the whole of the nose swell; the air pas- 
sages are impeded; the horse is threatened with suffocation; and a 
grating, choking noise attends every act of respiration. The dis- 
charge from the nose is greater, consisting more of pus and of 
blood, and more fetid. Symptoms of farcy now appear. Ulcers 
break out in various parts, and the animal is at length worn out and 
dies. 

This is the usual progress of the disease when it is bred in the 
animal, or produced by our stable mismanagement ; but there is 
another species of the malady, termed, from the rapidity of its pro- 
gress, the acute glanders. When the disease is communicated by 
infection, its march is sometimes fearfully quick, and the horse is 
soon destroyed. The disease is the same, but the difference con- 
sists in the violence of the symptoms, and the rapidity with which 
they succeed to each other. 

Sometimes, after the disease has proceeded slowly for many a 
month, the complaint all at once takes on the acute form, and de- 
stroys the animal. 

Glanders may thus be produced by various causes, such as con- 
tagion, exposure to a foul atmosphere, hard work, poor feeding, and, 
more frequently than is generally imagined, common colds and 
strangles. In these latter cases the seeds of glanders are usually 
present in the system, and are called into action by the irritation 
of these diseases. 

The treatment of glanders is very unsatisfactory. There are 
cases on record in which horses appear to have been cured by every 
variety of treatment, and some when all medical treatment was 
neglected. It is very probable that in these cases nature did a 
great deal more than the medicine. 

The method, however, which has oftenest succeeded, and from 
which most success might reasonably be expected, is to endeavour 
to subdue the local inflammation by sedatives, and at the same time 
to strengthen the constitution against the continued influence of 
the disease by the administration of tonics. It fortunately happens 
that there is a tonic which seems to have its principal determina- 
tion to the membrane of the nose, and that is the sulphate of copper. 
The follovving ball has often been serviceable; and it has sonaetimes 
apparently cured the horse, at least for a time. 

RECIPE (No. 21). 

Ball for Glanders. 

Take — Sulphate of copper (blue vitriol) powdered, from half a drachm 
to a drachm ; 
Ginger and gentian, of each a drachm; 
Linseed and palm oil, sufficient to make a ball. 



GLANDERS. 73 

One of these balls should be given morning and night for a fort- 
night, and then daily as long as may be necessary. Or the consti- 
tutional treatment recommended in the next chapter for farcy may 
be adopted. Some of the relapses after the seemingly successful 
treatment of glanders are evidently to be traced to the premature 
discontinuance of the medicine; but others, indeed, are more truly 
explained by the inveteracy of the disease. 

Green meat will always be a valuable auxiliary in the treatment 
of glanders, whether in the stable, or the horse being turned out to 
grass. In both cases the infectiousness of the disease should never 
be forgotten. 

Care should be taken that the hands of the person who adminis- 
ters the balls are perfectly sound, for the disease is infectious with 
regard to the human being, as well as the horse, and many farriers 
have lost their lives by inattention to this. The mo?t prudent 
method would be never to ball a glandered horse v/ithout the ball- 
ing-iron and gloves. 

What, then, is the practitioner to do when consulted respecting 
a case of olanders? Unless the disease is in a very early stage, or 
the animal an exceedingly valuable one, the best advice he can 
give is, at once to destroy the horse. The first loss will probably 
be the least. 

The horse having been destroyed, let all his body-clothes, and 
the halter, be burned, — the leathers well scoured, first with soap 
and water, and then with a solution of the chloride of lime (Recipe, 
No. 18, p. 68) — the bit and all the iron-work subjected to the 
cleansing influence of the fire, not heated so intensely as mat^ially 
to injure them — the brushes and currycomb burned — the rack and 
manger, and the partitions of the stable, first scoured with soap and 
sand, and then with the solution of the chloride of lime — the floor 
thoroughly scrubbed with water, and then wetted with the same 
solution — and the walls either cleansed with the chloride of lime, 
or washed, or both. 

If, however, the horse is valuable, or the owner wishes that 
medical treatment should be adopted, let him be removed from his 
former stable, if he had companions in it, and let the stable undergo 
the purification just described. It would be worse than useless to 
remove the other horses, for they may have been already infected, 
and may carry the contagion to other stables. Let the horse be 
placed in some shed or old stable, or, what is better, turned out with 
a shed to run into; or, in short, let decisive measures be taken to 
prevent any communication with other horses. 

In the pursuit of any course of medical treatment, the practitioner 
should never be induced to the practice of any cruelty. Operations 
of every kind have been attempted, and their perfect inutility, and 
the absurdity of most of them, clearly demonstrated. No injection, 
whether up the nostril, or through a hole bored in the forehead, can 
possibly be of service — for it can only be brought into contact with 



74 GLANDERS. 

a very little portion of the diseased surface. If a mild application 
could be spread over the whole of the interior of the nose, it would 
clearly be ineffectual in a complaint like this; and irritating ones 
would only add to the inflammation, and increase the sutierings of 
the animal and the intensity of the disease. 

The principal chance of doing good lies in prevention ; and the 
practitioner will be best able to prevent the disease when he 
thoroughly understands the nature and cause of it. The nature of 
it is a specific inflammation of the membrane of the nose, the poison 
secreted by which when under inflammation, or when ulcerated, 
being received into the system, and spreading over the frame. The 
cause of this inflammation is, first of all, infection. In a very great 
number of cases the disease has its origin here. The matter of 
glanders has come in contact with some sore or abraded surface, or 
has lodged on some membrane, through which it might be absorbed. 
When we consider the habits of horses standing near each other, 
and the little sores which will often be found about the lips, or 
muzzle, or mouth, produced by the bit, or the harness, or the food, 
we need not wonder at the propagation of glanders. Hundreds of 
horses have been lost in this way, by merely drinking out of the 
same pail with a glandered horse, or licking the manger, or eating 
out of the manger from which a glandered horse had been fed. 

Besides this, our whole stable management is pregnant with 
danger, as it regards the production of glanders. The heated air 
of a close stable must irritate the nostril through which it passes in 
its way to the lungs, and must render the membrane of the nostril 
liable to inflammation — the foul air of the same stable will have a 
tenfold more pernicious effect. The membrane of the nose is the 
guard of the lungs, and scarcely a particle of the pungent and 
poisonous vapour which mingles with the air in a close and heated 
stable reaches the lungs. It is arrested by the membrane that lines 
the intricate passages of the nose. Then, in a mismanaged stable, 
in the stimulating air of which we can scarcely bear to remain even 
during a few minutes, and the whole of which falls upon, and is 
arrested by, and spends all its injurious effects upon the membrane 
of the nose, can we wonder that that membrane is irritated, 
inflamed, and disposed to take on this specific inflammation among 
others'! 

By encouraging, and, so far as he has the power, insisting upon 
ventilation and cleanliness in the stable, the practitioner will do 
more to arrest the progress of glanders, than by any experiments on 
the curative treatment of the disease. 

There is no place in which glanders is so prevalent as in the ill- 
managed stable of the postmaster. It is lamentable to hear what 
serious losses he sometimes incurs from the ravages of this pest. 
The membrane of the nose is first injured by the gases to which it 
is exposed in their neglected establishments; and then, when the 
constitution of the animal is worn down by the hardships to which 



FARCY. 75 

he is so peculiarly exposed, this most injured and weakened part 
goes first; and experience proves that the winding- up of the life of 
the post-horse is, in numerous instances, glanders or inflammation 
of the lungs. 

There is another disease that frequently accompanies glanders, 
an4 which, indeed, is only another form of it, and will therefore 
properly be the subject of the next chapter. 



CHAPTER XL 

INFLAMMATION OF THE ABSORBENTS. — FARCY. 

In the Cattle Doctor (p. 32), I have described the absorbents as 
vessels which are opening upon every surface, and every part of the 
body, and carrying away the worn-out portions of the frame, or the 
fluid that fills any cavity, or rests upon any surface, — and this for 
the purpose of converting them again intonutriment, or of expelling 
them. These vessels follow the course of the veins, and are 
furnished with valves like the veins, so that amidst the action of the 
muscles, and the change of position of the limbs, the fluid may never 
retrograde, but pursue its forward course to its proper destination. 
Some of these absorbents open upon the surface of the glanderous 
ulcers, and take up the poison which is secreted there ; and that 
poison is of so corrosive a nature, that it inflames the absorbents as 
it passes along ; and when it is arrested for awhile at the valves of 
the absorbents, the inflammation increases there, and little tumours 
are formed, which suppurate and ulcerate. 

The glanderous ulcers are superficial, and therefore the super- 
ficial absorbents are first affected, and there are small hard cords 
running along under the skin by the side of the veins, particularly 
where the skin is thinnest; while, at certain intervals, there are 
small tumours or knots (farcy-buds), which break, and small ulcers 
(farcy-ulcers) remain. 

These buds have some resemblance to the patches on the skin 
which are known by the name of surfeit, but they may readily be 
distinguished from them by their hardness, and by their running in 
lines. 

By degrees the deeper-seated absorbents are afl^ected by the 
poison, and their result sudden and painful swellings of the limbs, 
or large tumours on various parts, which also break and leave deep 
and corroding and loathsome ulcers. The disease often commences 
in, and is sometimes altogether confined to, one of the hind limbs; 
at other times the head and the muzzle are first aflfected, and there 
is swelling of the muzzle, and a discharge of offensive bloody matter 
from the nostrils : sometimes the disease appears in the form of bad 



76 FARCY. 

grease. The characters which it assumes are various, and often 
puzzling-; but during the whole course of the disease the horse is 
hide-bound, and losing flesh and strength, and ultimately dies a 
mass of corruption. 

Farcy is, like glanders, contagious; but the disease is much 
oftener to be attributed to bad stable management. It usually r^ns 
its course more speedily than glanders, although sometimes, like 
that malady, it lurks long in the frame before it produces its 
destructive etfects. It may often be considered as an after-stage of 
glanders, and it is essentially the same disease, but under a different 
form. 

Although it is thus identified with glanders, it is somewhat more 
manageable than that complaint. There are very many cases of the 
apparent recovery of the farcied horse, and not a few in which the 
disease has been permanently eradicated ; but it is only when it is 
confined to the corded absorbents, or superficial ulcer, or swelled 
limb, that it admits of cure; — when the deep corroding ulcer 
appears, or the swelled head, and the fetid discharge, the case is as 
hopeless as that of confirmed glanders. 

The treatment is either local or constitutional. The first con- 
sists in the dispersion or destruction of the farcy-bud, or the healing 
of the farcy-ulcer; and the method of procedure in order to accom- 
plish this is simple enough. The part on which the virus lies must 
be destroyed, and the virus with it. A sharp budding-iron is the 
most convenient instrument for this, by which the bud may be 
pierced, or the ulcer cauterized to the very bottom. The collection 
of virus at the bud, or the secretion of it from the surface of the 
ulcer, being got rid of, the inflammation of the absorbents will 
sometimes cease. When the disease is ascertained, the buds should 
be opened as soon as they appear, and in every place. It will be 
useless to attempt to disperse them by any embrocation or discutient 
fluid. When they have been thus opened, the ulcers should be 
washed with a strong solution of sulphate of iron. 

RECIPE (No. 22). 

Lofton for Farcy. 

Take — An ounce of sulphate of iron (green vitriol), reduce it to a 
rough powder, and dissolve it in a quart of spring water. To every pint 
of the solution add a quarter of an ounce (by weight) of sulphuric acid 
(oil of vitriol). 

The ulcers should be freely bathed with this lotion morning and 
night. Some of it may be rubbed along the course of the corded 
absorbent with probable advantage, and the enlarged limb may also 
be bathed with it. 

The constitutional treatment will consist in the administration of 
tonics, in order to support the system against the widely-spreading 



FARCY. 77 

and destructive influence of the poison. The most effectual medi- 
cine in this case is the bi-chloride of mercury (corrosive sublimate). 

RECIPE (No. 23). 

Ball for Farcy. 

Take — Corrosive sublimate, ten grains ; 

Powdered gentian root, two drachms ; 
Powdered ginger, one drachm ; 
Linseed meul, half an ounce: 
Make the whole into a ball with palm-oil. 

This ball should be g'iven morning and night for a fortnight. If 
advantage then appears to have been derived from it, the quantity 
may be gradually increased to a scruple of the sublimate m each 
ball; but the horse must be carefully watched, lest salivation or 
violent purging should be produced. 

In both cases the mercurial balls must be discontinued. In saliva- 
tion the mouth should be frequently washed with the solution of the 
chloride of lime (Recipe, No. 18, p. 68), and that succeeded by the 
infusion of catechu (Recipe, No. 19, p. 68) ; and an alterative ball 
(Recipe, No. 11, p. 57) sliould be given morning and night. 

If much purging and griping have been produced, let plenty of 
thick starch or arrow-root be horned down, and the following drink 
given morning and night : — 

RECIPE ^No. 24). 

Drink for Purging from Corrosive Sublimate. 

Take — Powdered opium, two drachms ; rub it well down with the 
yolk and white of an egg. Add the contents of two more raw eggs, 
rubbing the mixture well together as each is added : then gradually pour 
in half a pint of thin gruel, continuing to stir the mixture. 

If two days should pass, and the purging not be relieved, continue 
the starch and arrow-root, and give the following drink ; — 

RECIPE (No. 25). 

Astringent Drink. 

Take — Prepared chalk, an ounce; 

Powdered catechu, two drachms; 
Powdered opium, one drachm; 
Powdered ginger, one drachm ; 
The contents of one egg: 
Rub them well together, and gradually add eight ounces of thin 
gruel. This mixture should be given morning and night until the 
purging begins to cease, 

6 



78 FARCY. 

If at the expiration of a fortnight's trial of the corrosive sublimate 
no benefit seems to have been obtained, recourse should be had to 
the sulphate of copper (blue vitriol). 

RECIPE (No. 26). 

Another Ball for Farcy, 

Take — Blue vitriol, one drachm ; 

Powdered gentian, two drachms; 
Powdered ginger, one drachm; 
Linseed meal, three drachms ; 
Palm oil, sufficient to make a ball. 

This ball may be given morning and night, and continued with 
perfect safety as long as may be deemed necessary ; but if, after 
the trial of a month, no ground has been gained, the case may be 
abandoned as hopeless. 

In farcy, even more than in glanders, green meat is necessary; 
and if the horse can be turned on spring grass, or into a salt marsh, 
it will always be productive of temporary benefit at least. A run 
at grass should always succeed an apparent recovery from farcy. 

Cantharides, in union with aromatics and tonics, as caraways or 
ginger, and gentian, have lately been successfully used in the 
treatment of farcy. The proper dose is four grains of the cantha- 
rides, given daily, and gradually increased to eight grains, and a 
drachm each of the other three ingredients. 

A blister composed of tincture of cantharides is also applied with 
success to farcy swellings of various kinds. There can be no doubt 
respecting the hereditary character of farcy. 

Still more recently a new medicine called diniodide of copper, 
being a compound of mercury with sulphate of copper, has been 
used with success in farcy, and in discharge from the nostrils re- 
sembling glanders. The dose is from half a drachm to a drachm 
and a half, combined with gentian and other vegetable tonics, and 
given once a day. The ointment of iodine has also been rubbed on 
the corded swellirfg-s with advantage. 



79 



CHAPTER XII. 

INFLAMMATION OF THE CELLULAR SUBSTANCE UNDER THE JAW — 

STRANGLES. 

Strangles is a disease from which few young horses escape. 
It is slightly contagions; but it is more a natural process which the 
young animal must go through. 

At some time, usually between the third and fifth year, the colt 
will be out of condition and spirit?, and have a slight husky cough; 
the appetite will fail ; there will be occasional discharge from the 
nose, and weeping from the eyes; and he will probably continue 
thus for several days, or even during some weeks; not decidedly 
ill, but evidently far from well. The horseman says that the colt 
is "breeding the strangles," and so he generally is. 

The owner suspects the real nature of the disease on account of 
the age of the animal ; the greater discharge from the nose than 
is usual in common catarrh ; the appearance of some purulent 
matter with the discharge; and sometimes the drivelling of thick- 
ened ropy saliva from the corner of the mouth. 

The cough becomes at length more troublesome, and the nasal 
discharge and weeping increase, until a fulness appears under the 
lower jaw, and occupies the channel. It is hot and tender, and the 
swelling increases until it assumes the form of a defined hard tu- 
mour in the centre of the channel. The cough now becomes more 
urgent; it is sometimes almost suffocating. The tumour grows, 
and points, and, if sufl'ered to take its natural course, breaks, and a 
considerable ulcer remains; but after the inatter is fairly run out, 
the ulcer speedily heals, and the colt is well. The disease is es- 
sentially the formation, and suppuration, and discharge of this 
tumour. 

If the proprietor of the horse or the veterinary surgeon does not 
too much intermeddle with this process, it is rarely that much dan- 
ger attends on strangles. Some weakness may remain ; but that 
gradually disappears, and the colt enjoys far better health than he 
did before. 

There should be no bleeding while strangles is coming on, or the 
tumour forming, except there is considerable fever; nor should any 
physic be administered, except a very mild dose if the animal is 
costive; but mashes should be given morning and night, with green 
meat, and the quantity of corn a little but not much diminished. 
Bleeding will only weaken the colt, and retard the progress of the 
tumour, or possibly prevent its coming to full maturity. 

As soon as the fulness under the jaw is evident, and the tumour 



80 STRANGLES. 

is forming, its projrress should be hastened by the application of 
strong stimulants to the part. There is evidently a struggle going 
forward between nature and the disease, while the tumour is as- 
suming a palpable form, and proceeding to suppuration; and it is 
the continuance of this struggle that produces the weakness during 
and after strangles, which sometimes alarms, and is not always 
speedily removed. It is evident that the sooner the struggle is 
terminated the better; and the object of the practitioner should be 
to effect this by hastening the process of suppuration. 

Many persons apply poultices and fomentations to the part. The 
effect of these is doubtful. The poultice is not always kept on the 
tumour ; and as the hair cannot always be perfectly dried after the 
fomentation has been used, the cold produced by evaporation from 
the damp surfice will do more harm than the warmth of the fomen- 
tation had done good. Warm fomentations and linseed poultices, 
frequently and carefully applied, are certainly the quickest method 
of hastening the suppurative process, and should therefore be ap- 
plied if the young horse is valuable and has been long domesticated. 
In ordinary cases, however, and particularly if the animal is very 
young, the throat should be blistered as soon as the tumour begins 
to be formed. The suppuration will be accelerated by many days, 
and much expenditure of strength will be saved. A slight blis- 
tering application may even be applied when poultices are also 
adopted. 

There are few things more disgraceful in the farrier's Pharma- 
-copceia than the composition of blister ointment. It would almost 
seem as if it were the object of the practitioner to torture the poor 
animal, and permanently to blemish the part, rather than to apply 
a safe and useful blister: hence, euphorbium, and oil of vitriol, and 
.corrosive sublimate are so often found in the vesicatories of the 
farrier. The very best blister that can be composed has the 
Spanish fly alone for its basis. The following is the recipe : 

RECIPE (No. 27). 
Blister Ointment. 

Take — Spanish flies, one pound, and reduce them to fine powder; 
melt together, palm-oil, four pounds, and resin, one pound, and when 
they begin to cool, add the flies, continuing to stir the mass until it is 
set. 

This ointment, if it is well rubbed in, will always vesicate, and 
never blemish. 

Then comes a question : the tumour rapidly coming forward, is it 
to be suffered to take its natural course and break, or should the 
escape of the pus be hastened by the lancet? No good practitioner 
would willingly have an ulcer with ragged edges, and difiicuit to 
iheal, and that would generally be the result of the spontaneous 



STRANGLES. 81 

bursting of the abscess. As soon as a tolerable quantity of fluid 
can be detected in the tumour, and the t-kin begins to be prominent 
and t-oft in some parts of the swelling, the lancet should be used. 
The incision should be from half an inch to an inch in length, or 
the orifice will be apt to close before the pus is all discharged. 
There should be little or no squeezing of the tumour, in order to 
force out the fluid ; but a poultice should be applied, or fomentations 
frequently used ; and when the discharge is beginning to cease, the 
wound should be dressed with Tincture of Aloes or Myrrh ; or a little 
of the Tincture may, with advantage, be injected into the abscess. 

The horse will usually begin to mend as soon as the abscess is 
opened; yet the practitioner must not be in too great haste to open 
it. The matter should be suffered evidently, and in some quantity, 
to form. If the tumour is lanced before this, the inflammation of the 
part will be increased, while the suppuration will be delayed, and, 
in some cases, altogether prevented : the horse will then linger on, 
neither sick nor well, for a long time, and will never thrive so 
thoroughly as when, by a copious discharge from the abscess, he 
has got rid of that which was preying on the constitution. 

The medical treatment of strangles will depend on the degree of 
fever that accompanies the formation of the tumour. It is a rule 
almost without exception, that a horse should never be bled in 
strangles, unless there is considerable fever. The little accelera- 
tion of the pulse and heat of mouth, which usually accompany the 
disease, will be successfully combated by a few fever-balls (Recipe, 
No. 15, p. 63). Mashes should always be given, and green meat 
if it can be obtained. 

If there is no kver, medicine is quite unnecessary, until the 
tumour is nearly healed, when a mild dose of physic may be admi- 
nistered. It will expel the humours that will now be afloat in the 
system, and prevent an attack of grease, or swelling of the joints, 
\)r some acute inflammation after the animal is convalescent. 

The weakness which sometimes remains in the latter stages of 
strangles, or when the disease is passed, may in most cases be left 
to the slow but renovating power of nature. If, however, the weak- 
ness should continue, or increase, or be accompanied by evident 
loss of flesh, bran or malt mashes, green uieat, carrots, or a salt 
mash, will be serviceable, with one or two feeds of corn daily: 
nevertheless it should not be forgotten that too much hard and 
stimulating food would be dangerous. 

Should the weakness still continue, a few tonic balls may be 
administered. 

RECIPE (No. 28). 

Tonic Balls. 

Take — Sulphate of iron (green vitriol), two drachms; 
Gentian, three drachms ; 
Ginger, one drachm. 
Make them into a ball with palm-oil, and give one daily. 



82 



CHAPTER XIII. 

INFLAMMATION OF THE GLANDS. 

In strangles, and in every case of severe catarrh and cold, and 
frequently even in milder cases, the glands of the mouth and throat 
will be affected, and will become hot, swelled, and tender. This 
will be evident externally at the slightest glance, and will be more 
decidedly shown by the horse quidding his food, that is, dropping 
it from his mouth partly chewed, being unable or unwilling to 
swallow it on account of the pain which it gives in passing over and 
pressing upon the inflamed and sore parts. 

In common sore throat the gland usually first and most affected 
is that under the ear, the parotid gland. In its healthy state it 
reaches from the root of the ear to the angle of the lower jaw ; and 
when it is a little enlarged by inflammation, it can be seen, plainly 
enough, filling up and protruding from the hollow between the ear 
and the jaw. 

The horse should be treated as described under the article 
catarrh; he should be bled, and have sedative medicine according 
to the degree of fever which accompanies the sore throat. The 
head and neck should be covered with a hood ; and the following 
embrocation should be well rubbed in, reacliing from ear to ear, 
extending over the greater part of the channel, and about three 
inches down the windpipe. 

RECIPE (No. 29). 

Embrocation for Sore Throat. 

Take — Common liquid blister, two ounces ; 
Hartshorn, one ounce ; 
Olive oil, one ounce; 
Oil of origanum, one drachm : 
Shake them well together. 

RECIPE (No. 30). 
Strong Liquid Blister. 

Take — Powdered Alkanet root, two ounces ; 
Spirit of turpentine, a gallon. 
Pour the turpentine on the alkanet root, and let it macerate three 
days, frequently shaking it; on the fourth day let it stand undisturbed; 
then put one pound of Spanish flies, powdered, into another jar, and 



INFLAMMATION OF THE VIVES. 83 

pour on them the clear turpentine from the first jar. Let these mace- 
rate a month, daily shaking them; then let the jar stand undisturbed 
four days, and pour off the clear fluid for use. 

The last recipe will be the liquid blister in its strongest form, 
and should be applied only when a very powerful external stimulant 
is wanted. It is excellent for blistering the sides and brisket in 
inflammations of the lungs ; and the belly in colic, or inflamma- 
tion of the bowels. From this the 

RECIPE (No. 31). 
The Common Liquid Blister. 

Is made, by mixing — Strong liquid. blister, and 

Spermaceti oil, equal parts. 

This embrocation should be applied morning and night until either 
considerable scurfiness or swelling around the gland takes place. 
The horse will then be speedily and materially relieved. 

In a few cases, however, the gland will continue to enlarge until 
suppuration or ulceration appears. This is a serious business, and 
requires the attention of a skilful veterinary surgeon. In the best 
of cases the healing of the ulcer will be difficult and tedious. Some- 
times it may be necessary to destroy the gland, and at other times 
to make a new passage for the discharge of the saliva into the 
mouth. This is treated of at considerable length in the first volume 
of a very excellent monthly periodical — " The Veterinarian." The 
treatment will in general consist in keeping the wound clean by 
the application of occasional or frequent poultices; in having a 
dependent orifice, from which the matter may be freely discharged ; 
in repressing all fungous granulations by the use of the caustic, and 
stimulating the surface of the wound to healthy action by the appli- 
cation of Friar's Balsam or a solution of zinc. 

The other glands which supply the mouth with saliva will also 
generally share in the inflammation of the parotid. The submax- 
illary glands will be oftenest affected. It is very rarely indeed 
that the horse has cold without kernels, and sometimes large ones, 
being felt under the jaw. If they are neither very large nor very 
tender, it will be best to let them alone. The swelling will sub- 
side when the cold or fever is removed. Should they, however, 
attain a considerable size, and remain under the name of 

THE VIVES, 

the embrocation (Recipe, No. 29, p. 82,) must be well rubbed in; 
but no one who values his horse will choose that he should be sub- 
mitted to the barbarous treatment of the farrier, who will sometimes 
endeavour to cut the glands out with his knife; or to sear them 



84 INFLAMMATION OF THE PAPS. 

down with his heated iron ; or to bring- them to suppuration by the 
flame of a candle. 

These indurated glands will generally be dispersed by the appli- 
cation of a linament like that recommended; but if it should fail to 
do so, a little of the following ointment, composed of 

Iodide of potassium, one drachm; 
Palm-oil, one ounce, 

should be rubbed in daily, and in very obstinate cases it may be 
assisted by the internal administration of seven or eight grains of 
the iodide of potassium. 

BARBS OR PAPS. 

The submaxillary glands open into the mouth, under the tongue 
and on either side of the bridle of the tongue. When there is 
much inflammation of the glands, or of the neighbouring parts, the 
lips of these openings from the glands enlarge: perhaps the saliva 
is somewhat changed, and irritates the duct and excoriates the 
orifice, and a little swelling appears on each side of the tongue. 

Tiie proper way to treat that swelling is to combat the inflam- 
mation which produced it by bleeding, giving laxative and sedative 
medicines, and putting the animal on low living; and then, as soon 
as the inflammation begins to abate, the barbs or paps will gradually 
diminish, and all will be well. No ointment or lotion should be 
applied to them; for the cause ceasing, the eflTect will presently 
disappear. The farrier who proposes to cut or to burn them off* shows 
the most disgraceful ig-norance. He will not only put a noble 
animal to much unnecessary torture, but the new inflammation 
which he will produce in the part will close up the orifice of the 
duct. The secretion of the saliva, however, will still go on; and 
if it cannot be discharged into the mouth, it will accutnulate some- 
where, the duct will ulcerate and break, and a fistulous wound will 
be found in the mouth or under the jaw, which the practitioner 
will be sadly puzzled to get rid of 

GIGS, BLADDERS, FLAPS. 

These are names for enlargements of the openings from the 
numerous little glands under the tongue and about the mouth — the 
sublingual glands chiefly — and which are the other agents in the 
production of the saliva. They, too, sympathize in the surrounding 
inflammation, and becoming enlarged, look like little pimples scat- 
tered about the mouth. In most cases nothing should be done to 
them, except that the Infusion of Catechu (Recipe, No. 19, p. 68), 
or the Alum Wash (Recipe, No. 20, p. 68), may diminish the swell- 
ing or heal the little ulcers that may be formed; but if decided 
ulceration has appeared and is spreading, the Tincture of Myrrh 
will be the best principle. 

In all cases of sore throat the nose-bag will be found exceedingly 



BRONCHITIS. 85 

useful. In common cases scalded bran may be sufficient. It should 
be almost or quite at the boilinor temperature, the bag, however, 
being sufficiently deep to secure the muzzle of the horse from being 
scalded. In bad cases, and attended with much difficulty of breath- 
ing, fresh yellow deal shavino-s may be used instead of bran. The 
membrane of the throat will sometimes be the principal seat of 
inflammation, or it will sympathize with the neighbouring glands, 
and partake of their disease ; the vapour from the hot bran or saw- 
dust will pass over the irritated surface, and have all the beneficial 
effect of a fomentation, while the turpentine which it contains will 
more readily cleanse the part, and, from its slight stimulus, relieve 
the inflammation beneath the membrane. 

Inflammation of the throat, its glands, or its lining membrane, 
soon spreads to other parts. It will particularly extend down the 
windpipe, and be indicated by short and convulsive breathing, and 
often by a loud roaring noise which may be heard when the ear of 
the observer is placed over the course of the windpipe. The in- 
flammation will not long confine itself to the windpipe: it will 
attack the ramifications of the bronchial lubes, or the small passages 
through which the air is conveyed to the cells in which it is to un- 
dergo'^its change. Inflammation of these air-passages vvill form the 
subject of the next chapter. 



CHAPTER XFV. 

BRONCHITIS — INFLAMMATION OF THE BRONCHIAL TUBES. 

This disease consists of inflammation of the membrane lining the 
air-passages in the lung^, and is generally accompanied by a simi- 
lar dit^ease of the windpipe and the larynx. It is produced by the 
same causes as a common cold, and not unfrequently is the exten- 
sion of infl^immation from the throat downwards. It is often a very 
insidious and fatal disea.-e, though sometimes slight and free from 
danger. It frequently creeps on so gradually and insidiously, that 
it often fails to attract attention until too late. It is not uncommon 
for a cough and a slight diminution of the appetite to be the only 
symptoms noticed for several days, although if the animal were 
examined at this stage, we should find a quickening and disturbance 
both of the pulse and the breathinir. A discharge from the nostrils 
is also an early symptom. The disease, after creeping on in this 
manner for several days, sometimes exhibits on a sudden the most 
dangerous symptoms; the pulse being exceedingly quick and weak, 
the respiration greatly accelerated, the membrane of the nostrils 
and eyelids of a deep red colour, and the discharge from the nostrils 



86 BRONCHITIS. 

diminished or suspended : the blood, if taken, will be found very 
dark. When bronchitis presents itself in this form, it is very com- 
monly fatal — the membrane of the nostrils becomes of a purple hue, 
and the intensity of the inflammation suppresses all discharge, and 
death too frequently closes the scene in the course of a week or ten 
days. 

The disease fortunately does not always exhibit itself in this 
severe or insidious form. We often find from the first a loss of 
appetite, dulness, discharge from the nostrils, and cough, and it may 
be distinguished from a common catarrh chiefly by the quickness 
of the pulse and the disturbance of the breathing; the former 
ranging from 45 to 60 in a minute, but generally somewhat weak. 
From common inflammation of the lungs it may be distinguished 
by the warmth of the surface and the extremities which usually 
prevails, and the more moderate acceleration of the pulse and respi- 
ration. It should, however, be observed, that it is by no means 
uncommon for this disease to be complicated with inflammation of 
the lungs, and when this is the case it is more dangerous than either 
simple affection. It is sometimes attended with costiveness, the 
dung being often offensive, and coated with mucus, and yet the 
membrane lining the bowels is so irritable as to be violently acted 
on if any physic is administered. On applying the ear to the chest, 
instead of the healthy murmur, we generally hear a wheezing sound, 
owing to the air struggling with the mucus; but this, of course, 
will depend very much on the presence and the quantity of this 
mucus. The membrane of the nostrils and the eyelids are red, and 
the mouth usually hot. 

The treatment will commence with bleeding. There is a para- 
mount necessity for this; and yet, violent as the symptoms may 
appear to be, the patient will not often bear the loss of much blood; 
while here, more than in any other disease, vvill appear the propriety 
of the caution which was reconnnended when treating of the opera- 
tion of bleeding. No fixed quantity should be mentioned. The 
operation should never be left to the assistant or the servant, but 
should take place under the practitioner's own eye, and with his 
finger on the pulse, in order that the bleeding may be carried on 
until the pulse begins to falter, and then immediately stopped. 
There is no rule which admits of so few exceptions as this, that a 
disease of the mucous surfaces (and this is one) requires prompt and 
decisive treatment; but at the same time a very cautious one, from 
the rapid debility which is connected with all these affections. 

It will rarely be prudent to abstract more than five quarts even 
at first; three will frequently be enough, but it will be generally 
requisite to repeat the bleeding the following or second day, and 
sometimes several times afterwards. 

Although it will be desirable to relax the bowels, aloes will be 
dangerous, except in the quantity of one or two drachms, and not 



EPIDEMIC CATARRH. 87 

repeated ; but it will be better to substitute a pint, or nearly so, of 
linseed oil, and assist its action by glysters if there is costiveness. 

Sedative medicine, such as the fever-ball, (Recipe, No. 15, p. 63,) 
should be given twice a day; and after the severity of the inflam- 
mation is in some measure diminished, setons or rowels may be 
inserted in the brisket, or its surface blistered together with the 
sides. 

Mashes, and hay or green meat, should constitute the only food 
of the horse. 

The disease, however, will not always so decidedly attack the 
bronchial tubes alone: it will have a more diffused character, and 
rank under the next chapter. 



CHAPTER XV. 

EPIDEMIC CATARRH — CATARRHAL FEVER — DISTEMPER. 

This disease, at all times distinguished by some common and 
characteristic symptoms, but strangely differing in different years, 
and seasons of the year, has a great variety of names, and is subject 
to a greater variety of treatment. 

Its attack is usually sudden, and comes on in the night. It 
appears at first like violent catarrh: — the horse shivers: the pulse 
is quickened ; the mouth is hot; the coat stares; the belly is tucked 
up; the membrane of the nose is red ; the eyes are red and weep- 
ing ; the appetite fails ; the flanks heave ; and there is more or less 
cough, and generally a very sore one. 

This may be mistaken for severe cold ; perhaps at the beginning 
it is nothing more than catarrh. It cannot be inflammation of the 
lungs, for there are no deathy cold ears or feet; in general the ex- 
tremities are hotter than usual. It cannot be pleurisy, for although 
there is cough, and a sore one too, it is not the short, interrupted 
one of inflauunation of the pleura. 

The second day, however, seldom passes over without the disease 
being plain enough to a careful observer. There is a degree of 
weakness which does not accotnpany any other affection of the 
chest. There may be disinclination to move, and stiffness of 
moving, in inflammation of the lungs; but this is downright weak- 
ness, and the horse beo-ins to stagger as early as the second day. 
We are then sufficiently aware that it is this peculiar disease — 
epidemic catarrh, or distemper. Epidemic it is: whether it be 
contagious is a question that has not been fiiirly settled; but when 
it once gets into a stable, every young horse, and almost every old 



88 EPIDEMIC CATARRH. 

one too, is sure to have it — and it gradually spreads from stable to 
stable throughout the neighbourhood. 

When it is established, another train of symptoms succeeds, 
plainly marking out the peculiar nature of the disease. There is 
sore throat to a far greater degree than in catarrh ; while some- 
times, in inflammation of the lungs, there is no sore throat at all. 
The throat is sadly sore. The horse gives up eating at once, and, 
day after day, he obstinately refuses to feed. The discharge from 
the nose is far greater than in pneumonia, and oven than in the 
worst cold. It appears earlier; it becomes purulent earlier; and, 
before many days have passed, it is frequently brown, bloody, and 
stinking. The legs do not get cold, at least not at first ; or if they 
are cold at all, it is only for a little while; many times in a day 
they change from hot to cold, and from cold to hot. The breathing 
does not always become laborious, and seldom very decidedly so; 
but the sore cough continues, the loss of appetite, the discharge 
from the nose, the hanging of the head, and, most of all, the pecu- 
liar weakness. Often, ere the fourth day has passed, the horse 
staggers about as if he would fall every moment. 

Swellings sometimes appear in different parts; under the brisket, 
or round the fetlock, or following the whole course of the flexor 
tendons. These are not unfavourable if they are not to too great 
an extent, and if the breath is not very foetid ; but if, after a while, 
the membrane of the nose, which has all along been redder than in 
pure pneumonia, becomes of a leaden, or livid, or purple hue; or 
the extremities, which had been variable in temperature, become 
icy cold ; or the flanks, which had been comparatively quiet consi- 
dering the degree of disturbance that evidently existed, begin to 
heave laboriously; or those symptoms of putridity, of which I 
shall speak more particularly in the next chapter, make their ap- 
pearance, the case is hopeless and death not far distant. 

The treatment of epidemic catarrh much resembles that of bron- 
chitis. The measures adopted must be prompt and decisive, yet 
cautious. Blood must generally be taken, and in a full and free 
stream; but the finger nmst be on the pulse; and when that begins 
to flutter, or the horse begins to blow, the bleeding must immediately 
be stopped. The inflammation must he subdued, but the charac- 
teristic debility attendant on the disease must not he increased. 

Next, the bowels must be gently opened, if they are not already 
somewhat loose. The following ball should be given: 

RECIPE (No. 32). 
Sedative and Aperient Ball for Distemper. 

Take — Of the fever ball (No. 15, p. 63) ten drachms, and physic mass 
(No. 1, page 38) two drachms : beat them together, and give one morn- 
ing and night. 



EPIDEMIC CATARRH. 89 

These balls should not be repeated more than twice, as purging 
is not desirable; but the fever ball alone may be given twice a day 
for a day or two, then once only. No change can well be made in 
this treatment for the first few days, unless the fever should be 
evidently subdued, and which the coolness of the mouth, the quiet- 
ing of the pulse, the pale colour of the membrane of the nose, and 
a little increase of general strength, will best indicate. If there 
is soreness of the ttiroat, as there generally is, the part may be 
stimulated with blistering liniment, or setons may be inserted 
over the larynx. As for diet, several days should pass before any 
attempt is made to drench the horse with gruel or more stimulating 
food ; yet, as this is a disease, the essential character of which is 
weakness, it would be advantageous if a little nutriment could be 
given. There is one plan which will generally succeed, and which 
should be regarded as an indispensable portion of the treatment of 
distemper; and that is, not to give one drop of water, but to hang 
up in the box a pail containing very thin gruel, or white-water, 
frorti which the horse may quench his thirst as often as he pleases. 
Some degree of nutriment will be thus got into him, when it could 
have been effected by no other means. 

If the season of the year will admit of it, some green meat, rye 
grass, or a few tares, may be placed before him, or damp hay 
offered to him by the hand; but only a little at a time. 

When the inflammatory appearances are abated and much weak- 
ness remains, we may have recourse to mild tonics, such as the 
following : 

RECIPE (No. 33). 

Mild Tonic Ball in Distemper. 

Take — Gentian, one drachm ; 

Powdered Ging-er, half a drachm ; 
Cascarilla bark, one drachm ; 
To be made into a ball with linseed meal and treacle, or in a drink with 
half pint of warm water, and half an ounce to an ounce of sweet spirit 
of nitre. 

One of these balls maybe given morning and night: but they 
must be carefully watched, and if the pulse should materially 
quicken, or the flanks heave, they must be immediately discontinued, 
and recourse once more had to the fever balls. The proper treat- 
ment in the after stages of this disease, when the bad symptoms are 
slowly abating, is to leave nature, as much as may be, to herself. 

If, however, ihe horse continues to lose flesh, and strength, and 
spirits, and the first tonic has produced no febrile reaction, a 
stronger one may be tried, and there is no better than Recipe (No. 
28, p. 81). Haifa ball fchould be given at first, morning and night, 



90 THE MALIGNANT EPIDEMIC. 

and the quantity gradually increased if the horse seems to bo 
improving-, and no fever returns. 

Should, at any later period of the treatment, the membrane of the 
nose become red, and the flanks begin to heave, and the extremities 
feel cold, and the countenance appear haggard, and the pulse be 
quickened, with some hardness, let not the practitioner be afraid to 
bleed, whatever may be the degree of weakness; but here, as in 
other cases already recommended, let him bleed with his finger on 
the artery, that he may stop the flow of blood as soon as the pulse 
begins to falter ; and until it does falter, the blood should continue 
to flow. These sudden relapses, or sudden tendencies of the disease 
to degenerate into inflammation of the lungs, or pleurisy, are not 
unfrequent, and demand immediate treatment, or the horse will 
assuredly be lost. 

The fever ball must be resumed, and blisters, if necessary, had 
recourse to; but, the symptoms having abated, the practitioner must 
once more remember the nature of the primary disease, and the 
weakness vyith which it is associated, and not push his depletive 
measures too far. 

There is another termination of epidemic catarrh, which some- 
times is much too frequent, and which, like the milder disease, 
appears to be dependent on atmospheric agency. 



THE MALIGNANT EPIDEMIC. 

The febrile stage of distemper often runs its course with fearful 
rapidity; so quickly, indeed, in some cases, that it is scarcely recog- 
nised, and an utter prostration of strength, and tendency to putridity, 
are the only, or the very early symptoms. There is a vitiation of 
every secretion — the loss of all vital power — effusions and tumours 
are everywhere appearing — every discharge is strangely offensive — 
ulcers form in the nose and mouth — the breath becomes fetid to the 
greatest degree, and the pulse quick, and small, and irregular. 

The mode of treatment is often very difficult to be determined 
upon, and in many cases the closest attention of the most skilful 
practitioner avails nothing. Bleeding seems to be out of the ques- 
tion, unless the disease is fortunately detected while the stage of 
pure fever lasts, and the putrefactive tendency has not commenced ; 
but that having begun, bleeding would only hasten the termination 
of the business. 

For the same reason purging should be avoided, except in the 
earliest stages: indeed a diarrhoea which bids defiance to the most 
powerful as^tringents is a usual symptom of malignant catarrh. In 
the early stage, however, a mild aperient might be permitted, as 
likely to carry off some offensive matter; but it must be closely 
followed by astringents. The astringent drink (Recipe, No. 25, p. 
77) may be given, and, at the same time, some attempt should be 



THE MALIGNANT EPIDEMIC. 91 

made to rouse the sinking powers. The following dri«k will be 
generally useful : — 

RECIPE (No. 34). 

, Stimulating Drink in the Malignant Epidemic. 

Take — Gentian root, powdered, one drachm; 

Colombo root, powdered, two drachms ; 
Ginger, powdered, one drachm ; 
Laudanum half an ounce; 
Spirit of nitrous ether, half an ounce ; 
Peppermint water, three ounces. 

Let this be sfiven twice in the day; and, if the horse can be 
coaxed to eat, let green meat be given, or malt mashes; and let 
glysters of thick gruel be frequently administered. 

I have seen good effects produced by the internal administration 
of the chloride of lime. 

RECIPE (No. 35). 
Antiseptic Drink in the Malignant Distemper. 

Take— Spirit of nitrous ether, half an ounce ; 
Laudanum, half an ounce; 
Tincture of Colombo, one ounce; 

Solution of the chloride of lime (No. 18, p. 68), eight ounces. 
Give this twice in the day. 

The ulcers should be frequently washed with the solution of the 
chloride of lime; the tumours, if there be any, freely lanced, and 
the wounds bathed with the solution; and the horse in a manner 
washed all over with the same solution. All offensive matter should 
be immediately removed; the stable sprinlded with the solution; 
and when the case is terminated, every thing that belonged to the 
animal, and every part of the stable, thoroughly soaked in solution 
of the chloride of lime, and then well washed. The unhealthy 
animals should, on the first appearance of thp disease, be separated 
from the sound ones ; and, if we can but too seldom save the patient, 
we should at least endeavoui; to prevent the spread of the infection. 



92 

CHAPTER XVL 

INFLUENZA. 

The epidemic disease, recognised under this term, which pre- 
vailed so extensively in 1836, and again during the latter part of 
1840, although in many cases resembling that described as epi- 
demic catarrh, yet possesses features peculiar to itself, and therefore 
demands a separate consideration. It may appear in a very mild 
or a very acute form; either connected with severe inflammations, 
or comparatively free from any local inflammatory action. It has 
appeared without any recognisable atmospheric cause, and often 
follows the same disease in the human subject; and yet we must 
attribute it to atmospheric agency, though it is probably infectious, 
and spread by this means also. It often comes on suddenly, a loss 
of appetite being one of the earliest symptoms: the mouth feels 
hot; the pulse is soon much increased in frequency; the eyes begin 
to look dull; the lids swell and are suffused with tears, and some- 
limes altogether closed ; the legs swell, and occasionally to an 
enormous extent, and watery swellings often appear under the belly 
and the sheath. Sometimes the bowels are in their natural state, 
but there is generally some appearance of mucus, and occasionally 
there is constipation. Generally speaking there is some affection 
of the throat, and the symptoms of inflammation of the air-passages 
or the abdominal viscera are occasionally present. The frequency 
of the pulse is remarkable, sometimes exceeding 100 in a minute, 
but usually feeble. The disease is evidently one of a febrile cha- 
racter, in which the mucous membranes are in a particularly irrita- 
ble state. The treatment of this disease must be characterized by 
moderation and discrimination. In many cases it will be proper to 
avoid blood-letting, and in all it must be comparatively moderate. 
In cases where general bleeding is not adopted, it will often be 
useful to open the angular veins, which will relieve the turgescence 
of the eyelids, and the headache. The mucous membranes being 
in a state of morbid irritation, great caution must be used in ad- 
ministering purgative medicines, although it is desirable, if possible, 
mildly to relax the bowels. Not more than two drachms of aloes, 
or twelve ounces of linseed oil, or ten drops of croton oil should be 
given, which may be added to the following: — 

RECIPE (No. 36). 

Take — Nitre, three drachms; 

Tartarized antimony, one drachm ; 

Camphor, one drachm ; 

Sweet spirit of nitre, one ounce. 



PNEUMONIA. 93 

The camphor should be powdered with the assistance of a little of the 
ether, and the other ingredients being added, the whole may be mixed 
with half a pint of warm water, and repeated without the purgative 
morning and night. 

After the second day the draught should be given only once a 
day, and after five or six doses have been given the nitre should be 
omitted, and a drachm of gentian substituted instead. If the horse 
is anywise costive, glysters may be employed with advantage. In 
severe cases it will be proper to insert setons or rowels in the 
breast ; and if the throat is affected, it should be stimulated exter- 
nally with the blistering liniment, or setons may be inserted in the 
neighbourhood. Any local inflammation that may be present must 
be treated accordingly; counter-irritation being adopted to a greater 
extent than blood-letting: for although inflammation of the air- 
passages or the chest justly demands bleeding, yet it must be had 
recourse to in a more moderate degree than when the peculiar 
symptoms of influenza are not present. 

When the fever has evidently subsided, and there is much de- 
bility left, the tonic ball (Recipe No. 33, p. 89) may be given. 

If there is enlargement of the legs, they should be well hand- 
rubbed and bandaged, and walking exercise and a loose box should 
be affcirded. The diet should consist of green food, mashes, and 
hay, with what gruel the horse will take; and if the loss of appe- 
tite continue, he should be drenched with it. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

PNEUMONIA, OR INFLAMMATION OF THE LUNGS — THICK WIND, 
BROKEN WIND, CHRONIC COUGH, ROARING, CONSUMPTION. 

Having spoken of the inflammatory diseases of the air-passages, 
I now proceed to consider those of the substance of the lungs, or of 
the membrane lining the minute cells in which the vital change of 
the air is eflTected. Pneumonia, or pure inflammation of the lungs, 
is not a malady so frequent as some have imagined, for it has been 
too much the fashion to consider every disease of the chest as in- 
flammation of the lungs ; but it does occur, too often for the interest 
of the proprietor, or the reputation of the practitioner. 

I have hinted that it is an occasional consequence of the other 
diseases of the chest that have been described. Common catarrh, 
and, much oftener, epidemic catarrh and bronchitis, will, if ne- 
glected, terminate in inflammation of the lungs. The disease will 
proceed along the air-passages, until the very substance of the 

7 



94 PNEUMONIA. 

lungs becomes affected. It may also be caused by exposure to 
cold ; neglect after being heated by exercise ; change from a hot 
to a cold stable; over-exertion, and neglect after that: sometimes 
it may be brought on by a change from a cold stable to an unnatu- 
rally heated one (it is easy to imagine how the aii-passages may be 
irritated, and disposed to inflammation by this), in short, any thing 
that may lead to common cold is capable of producing inflammation 
of the lungs. 

It is of great importance to be able to distinguish the symptoms 
of pure pneumonia, in order that the proper treatment may be 
adopted without delay ; for on account of the faulty management 
of the stabled horse, the constant irritation of the air-passages from 
the repeated breathing of an impure and poisonous atmosphere, and 
the injury which the lungs have received from our occasional cruel 
exactions of speed, when the lungs were not sound, or the horse 
otherwise indisposed for exertion, there is such a predisposition to 
an acute and fatal inflammatory action, the neglect of a very few 
hours may so establish the disease, that it will bid defiance to all 
medical skill. Many horses die of inflammation of the lungs within 
twenty-four hours from the commencement of the attack. In ex- 
treme cases they have perished in twelve, and even in six hours ; 
therefore not a moment should be lost. When a fatal result takes 
place so rapidly as this, the lungs are found completely black, being 
engorged or suffocated as it were with black venous blood. This 
variety of disease has recently been termed pulmonary apoplexy, 
and is generally brought on by over-exertion, and is characterized 
by a more rapid and distressed breathing than is otherwise found, 
and a more oppressed pulse. 

The first symptom of pneumonia usually is a shivering fit. This 
is a circumstance which should never be overlooked by the at- 
tendant. The moment a horse is seen to shiver, he should be most 
carefully examined ; and if there are other suspicious circumstances 
about him, he should be bled without delay. Some endeavour to 
cut the shivering fit short by brisk exercise. The horse is taken 
out, and trotted or galloped, and then well groomed, and a hot mash 
put before him. This sometimes succeeds, and inflammation is 
prevented by rousing the system so as to throw off the evil by which 
■ it is beginning to be attacked ; but qn the other hand, there are 
thousands of cases in which the disturbance of the system, indicated 
by the shivering fit, and occasioned by the commencement of a dis- 
ease that probably might have been slight and manageable, has 
been increased a thousand-fold by ill-judged exercise, and rendered 
fatal. 

The nature of the shivering fit should be carefully observed. If, 
•«,fler a while, it passes over, and the natural warmth, or more than 
the natural warmth, spreads over the frame, but the legs and ears 
are cold — icy cold, there is a decided attack of inflammation of the 
Jungs. There is no symptom so invariable as this: it will never 



PNEUMONIA. 95 

deceive. In common catarrh, in epidemic catarrh, or in bronchitis, 
the legs may occasionally be cool, yet oftener their temperature 
will be above the natural standard, or it will at least be variable, 
alternating from heat to cold ; but a fixed icy coldness marks, with- 
out the possibility of mistake, an attack of pneumonia. 

The pulse should be anxiously examined. In the other affections 
of the chest it will usually be quickened, and sometimes sharp: at 
other times it will be irregular, and even weak; but it will be dis- 
tinctly felt: — in inflammation of the lungs the pulse will not always 
be quickened at first; it will seldom be hard; it will occasionally 
be scarcely detectable; but it will have an obscure oppressed feeling; 
it v;ill give the idea of the blood being forced on slowly, and with 
difficulty; it will tell the careful observer what is actually taking 
place, and he will have a palpable demonstration that the blood is 
congestinof in the substance of the lungs, and that the heart has 
not power to urge it forward. 

The flanks will heave quickly and laboriously: there will evi- 
dently be the painful effort to force the blood through the clogged 
vessels of the lungs, and the idea of suffocation will be present to 
the attendant. Pain is sometimes indicated by the turning of the 
head, and anxious gaze on the side, a symptom which is not obser- 
vable in the chest affections that have hitherto passed under consi- 
deration. 

In addition to this, there is a stiff manner of standing — an evident 
attempt to make the limbs the fixed points, in order that the mus- 
cles which are common to the chest and the extremities may be 
employed in aiding to expand the chest, rather than to move the 
limbs. For the same reason, a horse aflfected with pneumonia can 
scarcely be induced to move at all ; and he obstinately stands until 
he drops from fatigue, or to die. Other symptoms are the expanded 
nostril; the head drooping; the mouth hot; the membrane of the 
nose red ; the appetite nearly if not entirely lost. 

The treatment of inflammation of the lungs is simple enough, 
although not so efficacious as could be wished. The first thing — 
first in order and in effect — is to bleed, and that most copiously. A 
broad-shouldered fleam, or lancet, should be used, and the blood 
drawn in the fullest stream that can be got, until the pulse first 
rises, and then falters, and the horse shows symptoms of faintness. 
There cannot be a more unscientific or dangerous practice than 
small bleedings in inflammation of the lungs. It will often be found, 
and chiefly in congestive pneumonia, that the pulse is extremely 
weak and small, and the blood cannot be obtained without much 
difficulty. In such cases it will be advantageous to give one or two 
ouncesof spirit of nitrous ether previously, which will produce some 
reaction, raising the pulse and enabling us to abstract a much larger 
quantity of blood. 

Purging must not be attempted here, for there is too much sym- 
pathy between the lungs and the intestines: but clysters maybe 



96 PNEUMONIA. 

given, composed of soap and water, or water with Epsom salts dis- 
solved in it; and afterwards, when the inflanamation is somewhat 
subdued by the bleeding and the medicine, and yet considerable 
costiveness remains, two drachms of the physic mass may be added 
to a fever ball, and given two or three limes ; or, what is preferable, 
half a pint of linseed oil may be administered each time instead. 

The fever ball (Recipe No. 15, p. 63) must be given as soon as 
the horse has been bled, and repeated three times daily for several 
days, or until the pulse begins to intermit. It should then be em- 
ployed less frequently, or in a smaller quantity. 

Means must next be adopted to produce some strong counter- 
irritation, by which a portion of the inflammation may be transferred 
to a less dangerous part. A rowel may be inserted at the point of 
the chest, or between the fore-legs, consisting of tow well smeared 
with blister ointment. This may be useful on account of the irri- 
tation it produces in a part so near the seat of disease ; but more so 
because considerable discharge will soon follow, and that will cause 
a certain determination of blood from the original seat of inflamma- 
tion to the spot in which the rowel is inserted. This rowel, however, 
must be surrounded, and the whole of the brisket and the sides 
covered with a blister. This will produce more rapid, and far more 
extensive external irritation, and therefore will in that proportion 
be more likely to do good by diverting some of the inflammation 
from the vital organ which had been attacked. The blister is far 
preferable to the rowel ; but the advantage of both may be obtained 
in the way I have mentioned : for the extensive service of irritation 
produced by the blister in the first instance, and the after-discharge 
of the rowel, may be cotnbined in the treatment of the disease. 

There are two ways of proceeding here : — either the sides and 
brisket may be shaved, and the blister ointment (Recipe No. 27, p. 
80) well rubbed in, or the simple spirit, or oil of turpentine (the first 
is preferable), thoroughly rubbed over the parts, without any 
previous preparation by removing the hair. I prefer the latter 
method; the stimulant is more expeditiously applied, and the effect 
is more quickly produced : indeed, if plenty of friction has been 
used, the effect is immediate, and without so much temporary 
blemish as is caused by the blister, while the irritation is consider- 
ably greater than that which could be excited by any blister. 

One caution, however, is necessary respecting the application 
of the blister. The inflammation should have been somewhat 
diminished by the bleeding and the medicine. In the very inten- 
sity of the disease the blister will not rise at all, or may increase the 
general irritability and danger; but when the primary inflammation 
is to a certain degree abated, the blister is an excellent adjuvant. 
It is always an unfavourable symptom when the blister does not 
rise. Either the original inflammation is too intense, and absorbs 
too mucli of the vital power, to permit any other part to be much 



PNEUMONIA. 97 

excited, or the favourable moment has passed, and the system is 
utterly exhausted. 

The horse should be turned into a cool, but not cold box. A cool 
and airy situation will be likely to lessen the inflammation and 
fever; but air too cold will drive the blood from the skin and the 
extremities, and determine it still more injuriously to the inflamed 
part within. For this reason, while the air is cool, the clothing of 
the animal should be warm, and the perspiration, sensible and in- 
sensible, should be promoted on the skin, as causing a salutary 
determination of blood there, and relieving the inflamed part. 

The same consideration will show the propriety of hand-rubbing 
the extremities, and covering them well with flannel rollers. This 
may be greatly assisted by rubbing in a liniment composed of equal 
parts of spirits of turpentine, hartshorn, and olive oil. The intense 
coldness of the legs shows that little of the vital current reaches 
them : but when a comfortable warmth is restored, the usual propor- 
tion of blood has been solicited back to the feet, and proportionally 
less will flow to the inflamed and overloaded parts. A hood should 
also protect the head and neck. 

As for food, the horse will rarely touch any; and if he were dis- 
posed so to do, he should not be allowed more than an exceedingly 
small portion of hay or green meat. To water he may have free 
access ; a pailful should always be slung in his box. 

The patient should be seen again within a few hours after the 
first bleeding, and if the pulse is again oppressed (not weak), and 
the nostrils are dilated, and the membrane of the nose red, and the 
feet cold, more blood must be taken away, and that also until the 
animal falters: the fever ball must be repeated, with an additional 
half drachm of the digitalis in it. 

Even after this, if the mouth is hot, and the extremities cold, the 
bleeding should be repeated. In the beginning of a case of decided 
pneumonia, the abstraction of blood must often be followed up until 
there are symptoms of amendment. 

The fever ball also must be diligently given without scruple or 
fear; and not one particle of tonic or cordial medicine must mingle 
with it. The old doctrine of the farrier is here quite exploded — 
experience has at length made us wise ; and it may now be laid 
down as one of the few rules which admit of no exception, that 
during the continuance of inflammatory action in pneumonia no 
cordial or tonic should ever be permitted. 

Supposing that the case has gone on well, the inflammation has 
been subdued, and the patient is slowly returning to health, the 
care and caution of the practitioner should not even now be sus- 
pended : there is danger yet. The owner may be impatient, and 
the practitioner may not be sorry to get the case off his hands ; but 
there is an old caution, seldom more applicable than here, "not to 
make more haste than good speed." After pneumonia, as well as 
epidemic catarrh, when health is once returning, nature will work 



98 THICK WIND. 

more securely than the medical attendant. No tonie or cordial 
should be allowed, unless there is marked debility. So far from 
giving- tonics, the fever medicine should not be quite discontinued ; 
for althouo^h the fever may be subdued, the part is left weak — it 
may easily be injured a^ain; and there is always a lurking 
tendency to take on inflammation once more. The horse must not 
too soon be set to work ; to speedy work he must not on any consi- 
deration be subjected for a considerable time. 

It is not invariably, however, that a perfect cure is accomplished. 
The horse may apparently enjoy as good health as ever, but he will 
not always be a sound horse. He may have 

THICK WIND. 

There is usually a great deal of congestion of the lungs in pneu- 
monia. ' Many of the air-cells are filled with coagulated blood; and 
when they have long been distended by it, that blood becomes in a 
manner organized; the cells are quite obliterated; and this portion 
of the lungs is rendered a solid mass, and therefore unfit for respira- 
tion. The function of respiration, however, must be carried on; 
and if one portion of the lungs is thus taken away, that which 
remains pervious and sound must do the work of the whole : the act 
of breathing will be more laboriously performed, and must be more 
rapidly repeated, and the horse will have thick wind. 

Thick wind is sometimes the consequence of bronchitis, or epi- 
demic catarrh. Then it arises from the lining of the air-passages 
having been thickened by the inflammation, and consequently the 
air-tubes being lessened in calibre, and a smaller quantity of air 
admitted in ordinary breathing. On this account also, the breath- 
ings must be more rapid, and more laborious, and this will some- 
times exist to such a degree as to threaten suffocation. 

Tenderness of the part will long remain after inflammation. 
Even the ordinary act of breathing will give pain, and the respira- 
tion will be short; it will be only half accomplished, in order to 
avoid the suffering which arises from distension of the cells: the 
breathings must consequently bo more rapid in order to make up 
for the shortness of each. 

Some degree of thick-windedness, however, may arise from 
other causes. Most round-chested horses are, to a certain degree, 
thick-winded, because the cavity of the chest cannot sufficiently 
enlarge to enable the lungs to expand so freely and fully as is 
required in active and continued exertion. A horse unused to 
exercise is thick-winded, because the lungs cannot at once accom- 
modate themselves to the fuller and deeper breathing which the 
exertion of speed, commands. A horse working on a full stomach 
is thick-winded, because there is not room for the lungs perfectly 
to expand. 

The frequent occurrence of thick wind after inflammation affords 



BROKEN WIND. 99 

another proof of the necessity of prompt and decisive treatment 
under that disease, that there may not be time for this congestion 
of blood in the cells, and organization there, and obliteration of the 
cells, and hepatization of the lungs, or the conversion of a portion 
of them into a solid substance like the liver, and the consequent 
loss of them for the purposes of respiration. 

Of the medical treatment of thick wind little can be said. The 
cells once obliterated can never be restored. All that can be done 
may be comprised under the following particulars : — attention to 
diet; giving the food in as small compass as possible; more corn 
and less hay ; not working on a full stomach ; regular exercise ; 
regularly exacting from the horse that degree of exertion of which 
he is capable without distress, and tlie regular requiring of which 
will gradually increase his wind and power. By these means a 
thick-winded horse may often be made serviceable for all common 
purposes. 

BROKEN WIND. 

This is sometimes the consequence of violent and protracted 
inflammation of the lungs; and it is also the result of the over- 
working of the thick-winded horse, but more frequently it is owing 
to sudden exertion with a loaded stomach. It is precisely what its 
name imports : it is a broken lung, a rupture of some of the cells 
of the lungs. The consequence of this is, that although the air is 
readily admitted during the expansion of the lungs, it is entangled 
among the ruptured cells, and cannot without great difficulty be 
forced out again. This satisfactorily accounts for the peculiar 
method of breathing which distinguishes the broken-winded horse. 
He inspires readily and naturally enough, but the expiration, or 
return of the air from the lungs, is not accomplished without a 
double effort, one succeeding to the other. 

It is easy to see how broken wind may be the consequence of 
pneumonia. If some of the cells are filled and obliterated in the 
manner which has been just described, the sound part of the lungs 
must have more to do, and must be more violently acted upon ; 
and, therefore, in more than usual rapid exertion, the delicate 
membrane by which thay are separated from one another may 
very readily be ruptured. 

In the same way the occurrence of broken wind from violent 
exercise after feeding, or after watering, may be easily accounted 
for. That is a ruinous habit which some grooms have of galloping 
a horse immediately after he has been watered. 

Nothing can be done for a broken-winded horse in the way of 
medicine. The disease, however, may be palliated, and that to a 
considerable extent, by attention to diet and exercise in the manner 
which has been just described under the article " Thick wind." 



100 CHRONIC COUGH. 



CHRONIC COUGH. 

This is a frequent consequence of chest diseases, and still more 
so of sore throat, and admits of as easy an explanation as the other 
two. Whether the membrane of the windpipe, or of the smaller 
air-passages, or the substance of the lungs themselves, have been 
inflamed, great soreness and irritability will long remain. When 
the membrane is irritable, a very trifling cause will produce cough. 
The very act of coughing is a proof of this irritability, and increases 
it, and speedily establishes a habit of it; and therefore it is that 
chronic cough is so difficult to remove, for we can neither get at 
the irritable membrane nor break the habit of irritability. Chronic 
cough, however, does not often exist to such a degree as to inter- 
fere with health, or even with soundness; and therefore there can 
be no necessity for adopting any long-continued or expensive mea- 
sures in order to get rid of it. If it can be traced to inflammation 
of the upper air-passages, as the fauces, the larynx, or the trachea, 
a blister, reaching from ear to ear, and about eight inches down the 
windpipe, may be tried. If the horse is valuable, and the cough 
urgent, a blister should always be applied. It cannot do harm, and 
the slight blemish which it occasions will soon disappear. 

Medicine will sometimes have effect in relieving the cough, and 
may be tried to a certain extent. If the cause is unknown, except 
that the cough is probably the consequence of some former chest 
affection, a sedative medicine that may gradually allay the remain- 
ing irritability of the membrane, and yet that shall not interfere 
with the appetite or work of the horse, may be daily given ; the 
very best is the following : — 

RECIPE (No. 37). 

Ball for Chronic Cough. 

Take — Digitalis, half a drachm ; 
Nitre, two drachms ; 
Liquorice powder, four drnchms; 
Tar sufficient to make a ball : 
Let this be given every night. 

In a few instances chronic cough seems to be connected with 
worms ; and the groom oftener attributes it to this cause than he is 
justified in doing. If, however, the coat is unthrifty, and the flanks 
tucked up, and there is mucus around the anus, and particularly if 
worms are discharged in the fseces, it will be proper to put the con- 
nexion between the worms and the cough to the test. 



ROARING. 101 

RECIPE (No. 38). 

Worm Ball. 

Take — Emetic tar, one drachm : 
Sulphur, two drachms ; 

Linseed-meal, four drachms; and make them into a 
ball with palm-oil. 

A mercurial physic-ball should be first given (Recipe No. 2, p. 
38), and after the physic has set, one of these balls should be ad- 
ministered every morning, a quarter of an hour before the horse is 
fed. A dozen of the balls may be thus given, and after that a 
second mercurial ball. If the cough is lessening, another dozen of 
the balls will probably remove it ; but if no benefit has been ob- 
tained, it will be scarcely worth while to incur the expense or 
trouble of the second set. 

Some benefit may be effected by attention to feeding. The oats 
and the hay should be good ; a full allowance of the former, and a 
somewhat diminished one of the latter, should be given, and green 
meat, and especially carrots, if practicable. 

ROARING. 

This is another disease of the respiraVry passages. In a few 
cases it is the consequence of inflammation of the lungs, but oftener 
of that of the upper air-passages. It is recognised by the peculiar 
noise, an actual roaring, which the horse makes when galloped 
briskly; or by the short grunt which he utters when he is suddenly 
struck, or threatened to be so. 

Roaring is caused by the sudden rushing of the air through some 
of the passages partially obstructed. If the obstruction is in the 
bronchial tubes, it is the consequence of previous inflammation of 
the membrane that lines them ; but it is oftener caused by diminu- 
tion of the passage through the windpipe, either by a thickening of 
the membrane which lines it, or the throwing out of a mucous sub- 
stance during the inflammation of the larynx or trachea, which 
clings about the sides of the tube, or stretches across it, and by 
degrees becomes fixed and organized. It may be produced more 
mechanically, by pressure upon the windpipe, when the colt is 
cruelly lunged^ or his head unnecessarily reined up while in pro- 
cess of breaking him. The last is the most frequent cause, al- 
though an unsuspected one, and therefore it is that fifteen roarers 
out of twenty are carriage-horses. The pressure of the lower jaw 
upon the larynx will produce flattening and distortion of that organ; 
and the passage being lessened both by the altered form of the tube 
and by the thickening of the membrane from inflammation, the air, 
in rushing through the diminished opening, produces the sound of 
roaring. 



102 CONSUMPTION. 

The cause must be discovered if possible. It will be readily 
suspected in a carriage-horse, and the anatomist will detect it by a 
careful examination of the part. If there is distortion, the case is 
hopeless ; but when it can be connected with disease, and is only 
forming-, but not thoroughly established, bleeding, sedative medi- 
cine, and blistering the throat may be tried. The tar-ball recom- 
mended for chronic cough (Recipe No. 37, p. 100) may also be 
given. In the majority of cases, however, the labour of the prac- 
titioner will be lost, and the roarer may be dismissed as incurably 
unsound. 

A skilful surgeon may, by applying his ear to different parts of 
the windpipe, possibly discover the precise spot whence the roaring 
proceeds; and if he also ascertains that there is no distortion, he 
may open the windpipe in that place with the hope of finding and 
getting rid of the obstruction; but it must be a skillful practitioner 
to whom such a case can be safely intrusted, and he will weigh the 
matter well before he attempts the operation. 

CONSUMPTION. 

One more consequence of inflammation of the lungs, and that 
the most of all to be dreaded, remains to be spoken of, and which 
answers so nearly to Phthisis Pulmonalis, or the consumption of the 
human being, that I hesitate not to give it that name. The con- 
gestion of the lungs, the pouring out of blood into the air-cells, the 
gradual organization of that blood, and the conversion of a portion 
of the lungs into a solid substance, have been already described; 
but in the process of inflammation, either a difl^erent fluid is poured 
into some of the cells, or it undergoes a different change, and it 
becomes harder than the surrounding substance, and harder than 
the most firmly hepatized lung. It forms a distinct and somewhat 
rounded body, varying in size from that of a pin's head to that of a 
walnut. These are called tubercles. 

The tubercle is a serious evil in its hard stale ; for it takes up a 
portion of the lungs which should be devoted to respiration, and 
irritates by its presence and its pressure. These, however, are the 
least evils which attend the formation and existence of tubercles, 
for another process after a while commences. The tubercle softens 
towards its centre ; it becomes fluid ; it is converted into, or it con- 
tains, pus: it is a concealed abscess. The abscess thus formed is 
not long bounded by the original size of the tubercle ; the pus in- 
creases; the cyst which contains it enlarges; it presses the lungs 
on every side; it comes in contact with other tubercles undergoing 
the same process; they give way; they run into each other; a 
larger abscess is formed ; perhaps there are several of them in dif- 
ferent parts of the lungs ; and the lungs are corroded and eaten away 
by them. At length they burst, oftenest into some of the bronchial 
tubes, and there is a sudden, and, too frequently long-continued 



CONSUMPTION. 103 

discharge of purulent, bloody, and foetid matter from the nose. It 
is poured out in such great quantities as to plug- up the passages, 
and the animal is quickly destroyed ; or the cyst presses more and 
more upon the air-tubes, and gradual but certain suffocation is pro- 
duced;. or the abscess breaks through the covering of the lungs, 
and pours its contents into the cavity of the chest, and suffocation 
is, in this manner also, the consequence. 

This is the state of the lungs in that dangerous and too often 
irremediable disease termed consumption. 

The existence of this state of the lungs is usually marked with 
sufficient clearness. The practitioner can generally trace the 
pre-existent disease, and that is usually inflammation of the lungs, 
or some acute inflammatory affection of the chest. The horse has, 
to a certain degree, recovered from that disease, but still he is not 
well. He is out of condition ; tucked up; his coat stares; he is 
hide-bound ; easily tired ; sweating if he is urged beyond a little 
more than a walk; his appetite is variable, and at no time good; 
the flanks heave a little ; there is cough, sore cough, some discharge 
from the nose, and that occasionally purulent, bloody, offensive, and 
the breath is offensive too. He will not thrive, whatever is done 
for him ; he loses ground every week ; he is consumptive, and he 
will gradually dwindle away and die. 

It is not often that much can be done for him in the way of 
medical treatment. Most good is generally affected when an oppor- 
tunity is, afforded for nature to act. A run at grass constitutes 
almost the only hope, and especially during the spring of the year, 
when the new grass is both nutritive and alterative. A salt 
marsh is the best of all places for a horse in this condition ; but 
when the weather sets in hot, and the flies begin to annoy and tor- 
ture, and, most of all. when they gather round and persecute the 
poor beast that has the seeds of death in him ; and also when the 
cold of winter causes him to shiver, whose constitution is too much 
impaired to resist its influence, he must be mmediately taken up 
again. He will be generally found to a certain degree relieved, 
and there will be some chance that medical treatment may be of 
more avail ; but if he is taken up to be immediately consigned to 
hard work, his doom is sealed. 

A great deal of management is necessary in the treatment of 
such a horse. The practitioner who undertakes such a case needs to 
be well acquainted with every symptom of irritative disease. Small 
bleedings may be necessary when unusual heaving at the flanks or 
redness of the nose is perceived. Counter-irritants will generally 
be indicated, but in the mildest form. A rowel in the brisket may 
be useful, but extensive blistering would produce too much irrita- 
tion. If there is little or no discharge from the nose, the following 
ball may be administered. It has had decided good effect, but it 
must be watched, and omitted immediately if it increases the fever, 
or brings on a more urgent cough, or palls the appetite. 



104 CONSUMPTION. 

RECIPE (No. 39). 

Iodine Ball for Consumption. 

Take — Iodide of potassium, five grains ; 
Linseed-meal, five drachms : 
Make them into a ball with palm-oil. 

One of these balls should be given every morninof for a week. 
On the second week one may be given morning and night ; but, 
beyond this, it will not be prudent to increase the dose. 

If these balls should not agree with the horse, or should have no 
effect on the disease, the ball for chronic cough (Recipe No. 37, p. 
100) may be tried, and, as in chronic cough, it should be continued 
during a considerable length of time. 

Very little tonic medicine is allowable in these cases. It will 
usually increase the irritation, which it is an object of so much im- 
portance to allay; but if the horse labours under great and in- 
creasing debility, the mild tonic ball for distemper (Recipe No. 33, 
p. 89) may be tried: it must, however, be watched, and suspended 
if it produces fever rather than recruits the strength. 

The diet must be regulated with some care. Too much corn 
will generally be injurious; some portion, however, is allowable or 
necessary, and that should be given either bruised and mixed with 
a mash, or after boiling water has been poured over it, and then 
bran added to make a mash with the corn and the water. Green 
meat may be given almost without restriction, and changed as 
often as convenient, in order to suit the failing appetite of the 
patient. Carrots will constitute the best of all food, and if the 
horse will eat them freely, no corn should be allowed. 

There is one caution with regard to the appearance of the lungs 
of these horses after death which cannot be too deeply impressed 
on the mind of the horse-owner and the country practitioner. 

When a horse dies of chest affection, and, on being examined, 
his lungs appear gorged with blood, and black and broken down, 
they apply to those lungs the term rottenness ; they conclude that 
he has been long ill ; and they fancy that they have a claim on, or 
have been imposed upon by, tlie person from whom they bought him. 
Nothing can be more erroneous. This blackness is the congestion 
which has been so frequently referred to; and the breaking down 
and apparent rottenness of the lung is the yielding of its substance 
to the pressure of the blood, or other fluid. It is the consequence 
of acute, rapid, recent inflammation, against which the animal 
could struggle but a very few days, and by which he is sometimes 
destroyed in a few hours. There is no old affection here : on the 
contrary, it is the best proof of inflammation not many days old, 
but too violent to be arrested by any of the means employed. 

The appearances which indicate real rottenness, and which alone 



PLEURISY. 105 

would substantiate a claim upon the former owner, are very dif- 
ferent. They are tubercles; tubercles of a large size; softening; 
softened; becoming abscesses; running together, and forming cavi- 
ties, or vomic(B, in the lungs, of greater or less size. To these 
would occasionally be added the shrinking of some portion of the 
lungs; the hardening, or hepatization, of others; or adhesions be- 
tween the lungs and the sides of the chest. These appearances, 
and these alone, would indicate an old affection, and warrant a 
claim upon the seller of the horse. There would, however, be 
need of caution even here ; for no one has yet proved what time it 
takes for these tubercles to form, and to suppurate, and for abscesses 
to be hollowed out, through a great portion of the lungs. There 
are some facts which would encourage the suspicion that all this 
may be done in much less time than many have imagined. This 
is a difficult subject, and the horse-owner and the practitioner should 
think well before they commit themselves. 



CHAPTER XVIir. 

PLEURISY. 

This is inflammation of the membrane covering the lungs and 
lining the chest. Its causes are the same as those of inflammation 
of the air-passages or the substance of the lungs, viz., exposure to 
cold; sudden alternations of temperature ; hard riding; to which 
may be added, as more likely to produce pleurisy than pneumonia, 
the absurd and cruel practice of leading poor horses, when hot and 
panting, up to their chests in cold water, in order to save a "little 
trouble in washing them; the riding against a sharp wind in a cold 
winter's day; and wounds which have penetrated into the chest, 
and injured the pleura, without reaching the lungs. 

A careful observer will easily distinguish between inflammation 
of the investing membrane of the lungsi and that of the lungs them- 
selves. The preceding shivering fit is the same; the loss of spirits 
and appetite; the hanging of the head; the disinclination to move; 
the cough, except that it is shorter and more piiinful ; — all these 
are the same: but there are other symptoms peculiar to this com- 
plaint. 

The breathing is different. The inspiration, or drawingf in of the 
air, by the horse with pneumonia, has been described (Chap. xvii. 
p. 93), as being effected as slowly as possible, and the expiration, 
or return of the air, being quick, and almost spasmodic. Here, on 
the contrary, the inspiration is short; it is a sudden effort, and 
broken off before the object is accomplished. The horse feels a 



106 PLEURISY. 

stitchy pain from the distension of the inflamed membrane, and 
which puts a sudden stop to the drawing- in of the air; and then, 
the chest being expanded, he suffers it to fall again, or he expires, 
as slowly as he can, in order to avoid a repetition of this stitch or 
spasm. The method of breathing is different from that of pneu- 
monia, and there are also remissions and variations in pleurisy 
which are not found in inflammation of the lungs, so that in the 
former disease, when the horse is tranquil, there is sometimes little 
or no increase of breathing perceptible. 

This being inflammation of the lining membrane of the chest, 
the sides of the horse will also he more or less tender, and some- 
times exceedingly so. This will be rendered evident by tapping, 
or even pressing on the side, for the horse will shrink under the 
hand. The inflammation of pneumonia is more deeply seated; and, 
therefore, although in both diseases the horse shows that he feels 
pain in the chest by looking anxiously at his sides, the tenderness 
externally is generally confined to pleurisy. 

In this disease, indeed, the pain is often so severe as to induce 
the horse to lie down and roll occasionally. 

The most characteristic distinguishing circumstance, however, 
is the colour of the membrane of the nose. In pneumonia, this 
membrane is a continuation of that which is inflamed, and there- 
fore intensely red; but there is no connexion between the mfem- 
brane of the nose and the pleura, and therefore it is never so highly 
reddened ; sometimes it is scarcely changed in hue until the sub- 
stance of the lungfs begins to be aflected. 

The extremities in pneumonia are icy cold : in this complaint 
there is either increased heat or variable temperature; and the 
pulse, which in pneumonia was oppressed, and often scarcely 
quickened, is here both hard and rapid. It is of importance to 
attend to these distinctions, because the treatment of the two 
disedses is somewhat different, and the progress of them is very 
much so. 

In its main features, the treatment of pleurisy will resemble 
that of pneumonia. Bleeding, prompt and copious, that is, till the 
pulse can no longer be felt at the jaw, will be the first step ; and 
the bleeding should be repeated until the inflammatory character 
of the disease is materially subdued; sometimes, indeed, a repetition 
will be called for within eight or twelve hours. 

To bleeding will follow the use of the same sedative medicines, 
and as diligently and perseveringly administered. White helle- 
bore, in doses of half a drachm, twice a day, has been strongly 
recommended, but it requires careful watching. Counter-irritation 
will be more plainly indicated, because the inflamed membrane is 
nearer the integument, and more' under command. The nature of 
the application will admit of no dispute; rowels and setons would 
be comparatively inefficient: there must be a blister, and almost as 
extensive as the membrane which is the subject of disease. 



PLEURISY. 107 

Mustard poultices have been recommended as applications to the 
sides, producing- considerable engorgement, which being lanced, 
effects the local abstraction of blood, — a very desirable result. 

The bowels, if costive, as they usually are in this complaint, 
should be relaxed by a few half-pint doses of linseed-oil, and clys- 
ters should be early and repeatedly employed. 

The diet should be spare, and should consist chiefly of mashes, 
carrots, or green food. The box should be airy, yet comfortable; 
and the clothing thick and warm, and even more so than in pneu- 
monia. If the inflamed membrane is so near to the skin, there is a 
better chance of diverting some of the blood from it to the skin 
when the animal is clothed comfortably; and the practitioner is 
certain that he will injuriously send more blood from the skin to 
the inflamed part, if he suffers the animal to stand naked, or but 
thinly clothed. Such a horse should always be warmly clothed: 
it is one of the essentials to the comfort and the cure of the animal. 
While the stable or the box should not be too much exposed to the 
weather, it should, on the other hand, be comfortable, yet admit 
plenty of fresh air. 

If the horse goes on well, the pulse will soon change its charac- 
ter : it will be both slower and softer. Next to this, the cough 
will be essentially changed : it will lose its short, stitchy sound, 
arid its evident expression of intense pain. The horse will not 
gaze so intently at his flanks, and he will move about more freely. 
'lUbre is, however, almost as much danger attending pleurisy as 
pneumonia; and the following are the symptoms of the case going 
on badly. The horse is fidgety — uneasy — pawing: he will sud- 
denly stop, and bend round his head, and bring his muzzle in con- 
tact with his side, and gaze mournfully on the seat of pain. All at 
once will come the pleuritic stitch, and he will start, and begin 
again to paw his litter. He will prepare to lie down, in order to 
try whether change of posture will give him a little ease ; he will 
put himself in the posture for it again and again: but he is afraid: 
and he shifts and crouches, and bends and trembles, and sweats, 
and sometimes groans, and then all at once he drops as if he were 
shot. 

It will only, however, be for a short time that he can lie down. 
He wants the muscles of his shoulders and his chest, in order to 
enable him to accomplish the now difficult act of breathing. His 
pulse gets quicker, smaller, and yet wiry: and patches of sweat 
break out all over him, and particularly about his sides. Gradually, 
however, he gets quieter : the pain has evidently abated, but other 
symptoms, and as fearful ones, ensue. He now begins obstinately 
to stand, and to stand fixed like the horse with pneumonia; and he 
is not only, like him, unwilling to move, but, at the slightest mo- 
tion, his pulse beats rapidly, he looks wildly around him, every 
limb trembles, and he appears as if he would instantly fall : but he 
recovers himself, and slowly moves on with a staggering, balancing 



108 HYDROTHORAX. 

gait. The short stitchy inspiration is now gone: it is labour all; 
increasing labour; protracted suffocation; until the worn-out animal 
falls and suddenly dies. 

The natural consequence of inflammation of a serous membrane 
has for some time been going on. The secretion from the mem- 
brane has been increased, and a fluid of varied character has been 
rapidly accumulating in the chest : it has been pressing upon the 
lungs; it has prevented their expansion. As the cavity has filled, 
a greater and still a greater portion of the lungs has been com- 
pressed, and taken from the office of breathing; and the remaining 
part has heaved more rapidly and convulsively; and the animal 
has experienced the horrors of lingering suffocation. 

The lungs of the horse that has died of pleurisy present a very 
different appearance from that which has been described in a fatal 
case of pneumonia. The chest, on one side, or occasionally on 
both sides, is filled with a serous fluid, — pale or yellow, or bloody: 
flakes of coagulated lymph are floating in it, or have been depo- 
sited over the pleura, or on parts of it, constituting a kind of addi- 
tional (a false and adventitious) membrane, that is, in general, 
easily peeled off, but at other times closely adhering to the pleura; 
while bands of this matter are thrown across, and connect the 
pleura of the lungs with that of the chest, or the two pleurae are 
glued together by this interposed substance. The lungs are no 
longer gorged and black with congestion, seeming as it were 
more than to fill the cavity of the chest: but they are of a di§^y 
leaden purple colour, and sometimes so collapsed as to appear not 
more than one-fourth of their natural size. 

In other fatal cases of pleurisy no water will be discovered in the 
chest, but the membrane lining it will be found gangrenous in 
patches, and elsewhere greatly inflamed. 

HYDROTHORAX. 

It is of great consequence to be enabled to detect the commence- 
ment of effusion, in order that measures may be taken which will 
give a chance of arresting its progress. The first symptom, and 
one that can scarcely be overlooked, is the absence of pleuritic 
pain. The next requires a little lact in the medical attendant, in 
order to be discovered. Horsemen begin now to be aware that, by 
applying the ear to the side of the animal, the act of breathing, or 
the murmur of the air as it passes in and out of the lungs, can be 
distinctly heard. This fluid, as it is thrown out, falls to the bottom 
of the chest, and is there interposed between the lung and the side 
of the chest; and being thus interposed, the murmur of the breath- 
ing cannot be heard through it. When, therefore, the ear is 
applied close to the chest, and moved from part to part, and, as the 
different portions of the chest are explored, the murmur is still 
heard, the examiner may be assured that there is no fluid yet 



HYDROTHORAX. 109 

thrown out. But when there is silence at the bottom of the chest, 
but the murmur continues to be heard above, and louder too, — for 
the lungs are there working- harder, — and, at the next examination, 
the space where all is still is increasing, it is quite certain that 
effusion has commenced, and is proceeding, A diarrhoea very diffi- 
cult to be checked, and a rapid wasting, usually accompany effusion 
in the chest. 

In the majority of cases it is only at the commencement of the 
effusion that it can be attacked with any well-grounded hope of 
success. It is the signal that inflammation has left the membrane, 
and that debility has succeeded, and common sense will dictate that 
the mode of treatment must be essentially altered. That must be 
done which could not be attempted in pneumonia. In the first 
place the absorbents must be roused to action. Diuretics will here 
be the sheet-anchor. As a common diuretic ball, and in order to 
cause the absorption of fiuid-s thrown out any where, either in the 
cellular membrane or the thoracic or abdominal cavities, the follow- 
ing is as harmless (the word is used advisedly, for diuretics given 
without just cause are productive of a great deal of mischief), and 
at the same time as effectual, as any : — 

RECIPE (No. 40). 

Diuretic Mass. 

Take — Of finely-powdered resin, two pounds and a -half; 
Cream of tartar, half a pound ; 
Sulphur, half a pound ; 
Linseed-meal, one pound ; 
Palm-oil, one pound ; 

The resin should first be rubbed down with the cream of tartar, 
for if the attempt is made to pulverise it alone it will cake together 
again in a few minutes: the sulphur and the linseed-meal should 
then be well mixed with the resin and cream of tartar, and the 
whole beaten up with the palm-oil. The dose will be from one to 
two ounces of the mass, according to the size of the horse. 

If the practitioner still suspects lurking fever, although this part 
of the frame is weakened, it will be prudent for him to give the 
simple diuretic ball every night, and in the morning administer the 
following drink : — 

RECIPE (No. 41). 

Take — Spuit of nitrous ether, half an ounce ; 
Tincture of opium, half a drachm ; 
Oil of juniper, ten drops; 
Water to eight ounces. 
8 



110 HYDROTHORAX. 

But if there is considerable general weakness, and the effusion is 
increasing, a tonic should be added to the diuretic. 

RECIPE (No. 42). 

Tonic Diuretic Ball. 

Take — Gentian-root, powdered, one drachm ; 
Ginger, powdered, half a drachm ; 
Sulphate of iron, two drachms ; 
Diuretic mass, half an ounce; 
Oil of juniper, ten drops ; 
Syrup of squills, half a drachm : 
Beat them well together. 

This may be given morning and night, and the Recipe No. 41 at 
noon. 

The effusion being once established, the practitioner should think 
seriously of getting rid of the fluid by an operation. If, by the 
stillness at the bottom of the chest, and that stillness advancing, 
although but a little way, up the side, he is assured of the existence 
and the increase of the effusion, he should have recourse io tapping 
the chest, and evacuating the fluid ; and, if he does this early, he 
will secure the following very important advantages: he will 
remove the fluid before the habit of effusion is inveterately formed, 
and when diuretic and tonic medicine may have some chance of 
rousing the absorbents to their duty ; and he will husband much of 
the strength of the animal, which must be rapidly wasted, when a 
portion, and a decreasing portion of the lungs is compelled to do the 
duty of the whole. There will be a third and more important 
advantage — the lungs will sooner return to the discharge of their 
proper function, for the portion which has long been compressed by 
the fluid, and rendered flaccid and withered, very slowly, or never, 
resumes its healthy action. 

The operation is simple in the hands of a skilful surgeon, and to 
him it must be consigned: to him, however, it may be hinted, that 
the chest should afterwards be frequently examined, by applying 
his ear to the side ; and that, if fluid continues to be effused, and to 
occupy the chest, it must be drawn off again and again. The most 
desperate cases will thus be, occasionally at least, successfully com- 
ibated. The principal reason why this operation has been so seldom 
successful is that the practitioner has contented himself with having 
once evacuated the chest, and has not considered that the disposi- 
tion to effusion will for a considerable time remain. 

In many cases, however, if the effusion has once commenced, it 
will continue in spite of all that can be done, and the patient will 
be lost: or, should the horse apparently recover, there is no disease 
after which he is so liable to a relapse. The horse recovering from 
pneumonia must never be securely reckoned upon : the horse saved 



CARDITIS. Ill 

after an attack of pleurisy will long be an object of suspicion. The 
pleura has to recover from its maceration in the fluid — the lung has 
to recover from its maceration and collapse : while cough, and swell- 
ings of the legs, and disinclination to work, and occasional stitchy 
pains, will often remind the owner that the horse is not safe. 

It must not be forgotten, and, indeed, cannot be too often re- 
peated, that the various diseases of the chest often co-exist in the 
same case, rendering the symptoms more obscure, and the sequel 
more unfavourable and dangerous. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

CARDITIS AND PERICARDITIS; INFLAMMATION OF THE HEART AND 
ITS INVESTING MEMBRANE. 

The heart is the grand agent in the function of circulation. It 
is the central pump, by the power of which the vital fluid is dis- 
tributed to every part of the frame. It sympathizes with every 
irregularity in the action of the circulatory vessels, and every dis- 
ease of them. If there is inflammation in any part, marked by the 
throbbing and increased action of the vessels of that part, it will 
not be long before the heart partakes of the irregularity and irri- 
tation, and the pulse will he evidently afiected. But the heart is 
subject to disease, independent of any sympathy with the diflTerent 
portions of the frame, or 'the frame generally. It is itself the pri- 
mary seat of inflammation. Carditis is a disease, not of frequent 
occurrence, or that has long been understood ; but which is some- 
times seen, and requires prompt and careful attention. It is, 
however, scarcely ever found unconnected with other disease. 

It is recognised by quickness, and, more particularly, strength of 
pulse; and that referrible not to general affection or irritation of the 
arterial system, but immediately to the heart. Not only by apply- 
ing the hand or the ear to the side is its violent action ascertained ; 
but it is seen to beat. If the left side of the horse is regarded with 
attention, the chest evidently vibrates; nay, the pulsations are 
heard; they are heard as soon as the practitioner enters the stable, 
if he listens attentively; and sometimes they are so audible as to 
force themselves on the observation of those who stand by. At the 
same time there is an unnatural fire in the expression of the coun- 
tenance. The horse is all alive. So far from appearing to be sick, 
he seems to be wound up to the highest pitch of energy, and capable 
of almost every thing. 

There is a disease, however, to be described in the next chapter, 
with which it may be confounded. The beating of the heart is 



112 PERICARDITIS. 

heard strongest at the heart-place, and when the ear is removed 
backwards, or higher up the chest, although still heard distinctly, 
it is not so loud : but in spasm of the diaphragm — the case referred 
to — there is the same jerking action shaking the whole frame, and 
heard at some distance; but it is not so distinct in the heart-place, 
as along the line where the diaphragm is attached to the sternum, 
the sides, and the loins. This jerking action of the heart is some- 
times very irregular, subsiding, perhaps, tor several minutes. 

The real character of the disease being understood, there can be 
no doubt as to the treatment that should be pursued. The horse 
must be bled, and as copiously as for inflammation of the lungs. 
Such excessive action must be lowered, by taking away as much 
as possible of the stimulus to action; and, the finger being held on 
the pulse, the animal must be bled until he almost faints. There 
must be no delay about this; for if an organ that is, and must be, 
always at work, is over-excited, and called upon to perform double 
labour, it will necessarily and speedily be exhausted. 

The bleeding should be closely followed up by laxative medicine, 
linseed-oil being the safest, of which two pints may be given. 
Sedatives should quickly succeed, and, most of all, digitalis; and in 
doses of two drachms each: while all food should be removed, or, 
at most, mashes only be allowed. 

Although a violent disease, it usually yields very readily to this 
prompt treatment. 

Inflammation or over-action of the heart itself — the muscular 
substance of the heart — has hitherto been spoken of: the pleura of 
the heart — the pericardium — is also liable to inflammation equally 
dangerous; and the disease is termed — 

PERICARDITIS. 

This disease, however, can seldom be recognised in the living 
horse ; or, at least, veterinary men have not yet sufficiently agreed 
on its distinguishing symptoms; nor has the existence of it been 
clearly ascertained, except as the consequence of carditis, or of 
pleurisy. In the first case, the symptoms of carditis continue for 
a while ; the throbbing of the heart is seen, producing a spasm of the 
whole frame, and which is heard at some distance; at length, when 
a fluid begins to be efl^used within the bag of the heart, in the same 
manner as it has been described to be within the bag of the lungs 
in pleurisy, there is irregular action of the heart; an evidently 
difficult action, attended with laborious breathing, and a feeling of 
suflbcation. The pulse, at first regular but bounding, becomes irre- 
gular, weak, intermittent: it is roused to a rapid fluttering action 
by the least motion, and it gradually sinks again to almost absolute 
cessation. 

This, however, is so identified with the kind of breathing arising 
from the pressure of fluid on the lungs, that the one cannot always be 



SPASM OF THE DIAPHRAGM. 113 

distinguished from the other; and, if it could, we should have no 
more power over dropsy of the heart than over that of the lungs; 
in addition to which it may be stated, that, from tlie situation of the 
pericardic bag, a puncture into it, and evacuation of the fluid, would 
be far more difficult and dangerous than puncture into the chest. 

ENLARGEMENT OF THE HEART. 

The heart is liable to several morbid changes, the most frequent 
of which is hypertrophy, or increase in its substance, which is 
sometimes so great as to double the natural size of the heart, and 
may be attended with an increase of its cavities, or not. 

Sometimes thi«s morbid growth of the heart is of a cancerous 
nature. I have known the heart double its natural weight, and 
quite altered in form, by fungous growth. The symptoms were 
principally an irregularity and a strong bounding action of the 
heart, and at length the horse died suddenly. 

These various diseases, with several others, are uniformly fatal 
sooner or later. 



CHAPTER XX. 



SPASM OF THE DIAPHRAGM. 



This disease is introduced here because it may be confounded 
with carditis, and should be most carefully distinguished from it. 

Let it be supposed that a horse a little out of condition, and per- 
haps with a full stomach, has been ridden far and fast, He is 
pushed on after he lias shown symptoms of distress; or his own 
courage pushes him on until he comes to a perfect stand-still ; and 
then, or soon afterwards, the following symptoms appear: he stands 
with his legs fixed, his neck stretched out, bis nostrils expanded to 
the utmost, every limb trembling, the flanks heaving, and the 
countenance exhibiting distress; and there is seen, at the same 
time, the convulsive jerking which has been described under cardi- 
tis; and the thumping noise which accompanies carditis is heard at 
the same distance. 

An inexperienced person would confound this with carditis, and 
he would set to work to bleed the horse, and to bleed him copiously; 
and as surely as he did so he would destroy him. Although this 
sound is heard from the chest, the heart has little to do with it. It 
is spasmodic action of the diaphragm. 

The diaphragm is the grand agent in respiration ; it has com- 
paratively every thing to do, and it had here more than its usual 



114 SPASM OP THE DIAPHRAGM. 

labour, for the horse was out of condition, and had been out of work, 
and there was much fat about the chest, and the stomach was full. 
The truth of the matter is, that this muscle was sadly over 
worked, and then it assumed the kind of action which every other 
muscle does when completely exhausted, an involuntary spasmodic 
one. 

A little care will clearly ascertain this. The beating- is from the 
chest; but if the ear is applied to the chest the chief sound is not 
from the heart; for the beatingf of the heart can be heard distinct 
from this. It can be most readily detected at the sternum, a little 
below and behind the heart; and then, if a line proceeding obliquely 
upwards and backwards is traced by the ear, the thumping will be 
heard the loudest in the direction of that line. The beatings of the 
heart and this thumping motion do not correspond. The heart beats 
half as quickly again. The diaphragm beats violently, the heart 
feebly. There can be no mistake about the matter, if the person 
who has the care of the horse will bestow proper attention. As 
convulsions usually mark the last efforts of expiring nature — as 
spasmodic action of the frame generally, or of some parts of it, 
shows the general exhaustion, so this spasm of the diaphragm is a 
proof of the perfect exhaustion of the part. 

No one would bleed an animal in a state of exhaustion; he wants 
a stimulant, and not a sedative. Bleeding would be fatal, and many 
a horse is murdered in this way. The skilful observer would first 
administer a cordial, and in a fluid form, as thus having the quickest 
and most powerful effect. 

RECIPE (No. 43). 

Cordial Drink. 

Take — Powdered ginger, a drachm ; 

Powdered caraways, two drachms ; 
Tincture of opium, an ounce ; 
Sweet spirit of nitre, an ounce ; 
Good warm ale, half a pint. 

If in the course of an hour no effect is produced, a cordial ball 
should be given. 

RECIPE (No. 44). 

Cordial Ball. 

Take — Powdered ginger and 

Powdered caraways, of each four pounds : 
Powdered gentian, one pound ; 
Palm-oil, four pounds and a half; 

Beat the whole together ; give from one ounce to one ounce and a half 
for a dose. 



TETANUS. 115 

This mass will form the common cordial ball, but, in spasm of the 
diaphrag-m, half a drachm of opium and one drachm of the subcar- 
bonate of ammonia (common smell ino^-salts) should be reduced to 
line powder, and beaten up with the ball ; while thin gruel, or white 
water, warm, should be put before the horse, and of which he should 
be suffered to drink as much as he pleases. 

This will rarely fail of havincr its effect in rousing the general 
powers of the system, although it may not immediately reduce the 
violence of the spasm. But, the powers of the system having been 
once roused, and especially by a stimulus so energetic, more reac- 
tion may be excited than is wished. It may be violent and 
dangerous; it may run on to inflammation and fever. This, there- 
fore, is to be guarded against, and therefore, now is the time to 
bleed. Eight or ten pounds of blood should be taken away; plenty 
of gruel supplied ; and the horse left for a while to himself Bleeding 
should also be practised in those cases neither attended with, nor 
proceeding from, exhaustion. In less than four-and-twenty hours 
all will generally be quiet, and a few tonic diuretics (Recipe, No. 
42, p. 110) will alone be required. 

The diaphragm has sometimes been ruptured, which may be 
produced by too sudden and severe exertion of the part. The 
symptoms are often very obscure, from the different degrees to 
which the injury may extend, but the most frequent are those of 
severe broken wind, and occasionally tlioi^e of colic. 

Before the diseases of the alimentary canal are considered, it will 
be necessary to refer to some of those of the spinal marrow. 



CHAPTER XXI. 

TETANUS — LOCKED JAW — EPILEPSY, AND PALSY. 

Tetanus is constant spasm of the muscles of voluntary motion, 
and particularly those of the head, neck, and spine: it is called 
LOCKED JAW, because the muscles of the jaw are earliest and most 
strongly affected. It is rarely preceded by any serious illness, 
although the horse will appear dull and deficient in appetite for a 
few days before the decided appearance of the disease. The atten- 
tion of the owner or the groom is at length aroused, and he 
examines the horse a little more closely. He now finds that the 
animal gulps his water (he is obliged to produce sorne forcible 
action in the muscles of deglutition in order to swallow it); and he 



116 TETANUS. 

quids his hay, i. e. he partly chews it and then suffers it to drop 
from his mouth. Possibly the real state of the case is not even yet 
suspected. The owner may think that the horse has sore-throat, 
and he may act accordingly, unless he does, what in every affection 
of the organs of mastication he ought to do, examine the mouth of 
the animal carefully. The actual extent of danger will then be 
evident enough ; there will be but little motion in the lower jaw, or 
it will be altogether fixed. 

Other symptoms will now be observed, or might, perhaps, have 
been observed before. There is a stiffness in the neck ; the horse is 
unable to turn his head round to his flank; the whole body must 
turn together, like a deal board ; the muscles of the neck are 
knotted ; the nostrils are dilated to the utmost ; the ears are erect ; 
the eye retracted ; the haw drawn over it; the countenance of the 
horse the very picture of despair. The muscles of the extremities, 
although less affected, are considerably so; the poor animal is 
conscious of his loss of power over them, and of the torture which 
the least motion gives him, and he fixes himself as securely as he 
can, and nothing but absolute force can induce him to move. The 
fore-legs are wide apart, and inclined forwards; the hind-legs are 
strangely straddling, and inclined backwards; the tail is erect, and 
in constant quivering motion. He becomes more and more a fixture ; 
and the jaws are, at length, so firmly clenched, that nothing except 
a little liquid, and scarcely that, can be got into the mouth. 

That this is a disease of extreme suffering to the poor animal 
there can be no doubt. The human being tells us that his tortures 
are too great to be borne; and indeed the pain which results from 
the cramp of one muscle will give some idea of the horrible torture 
that must attend universal cramp, and that continued, and without 
intermission, for many days. 

The cause of tetanus, or the manner in which that cause acts, is 
far from being well understood. There has, perhaps, been some 
slight injury ; a nail has been driven tco close, or a piece of glass 
has cut the foot : sometimes there has been more serious mischief, 
— the tail has been docked or nicked ; the wound has very nearly 
healed, and then it has begun all at once to assume an unhealthy 
appearance; a thin ichorous fluid is discharged from it, and there is 
a spongy appearance around it. At other times the wound nearly 
heals — if it has quite healed the patient is secure — and almost at 
the moment of closing, and without any seeming unhealthy change 
of appearance or discharge, this strange nervous affection is 
observed. 

It is a nervous affection. The fibril of some nerve has been 
injured; irritation and inflammation ensue; they rapidly spread' 
along the various branches of that nerve, and all its anastomoses 
with others; and as these are innumerable, the morbid irritability 
is by degrees established over the whole nervous system. 

A disease so dreadful and universal requires decided treatment. 



TETANUS. 117 

What is most likely to allay such irritation'? What is the most 
powerful sedative in such a easel Bleeding: therefore immediate 
recourse should be had to the lancet. The blood should flow here, 
as in other diseases of inflammatory or extensive action, in a free 
full stream; and it should flow on until the circulation is evidently 
affected. That will not soon happen, for the irritation is too great 
and too general readily to yield to any sedative; and more than ten 
or twelve quarts of blood will sometimes be taken away before the 
pulse indicates that any effect has been produced on the circulation. 

The consequence of this copious depletion will generally be a 
temporary remission of the symptoms; and, although a temporary, 
it is a most valuable one. The muscles of the jaw will be suffi- 
ciently relaxed to enable a strong purgative ball, or drink to be 
given. This, of course, should always be the second object endea- 
voured to be accomplished ; and if the bleeding did no other good 
than to relax the spasmodic muscles of the jaw and throat long 
enough for the administration of physic, it would have been of very 
material service. The physic should be the strong drink (Recipe 
No. 10, p. 55). The stomach-pump of Read will much facilitate the 
administration of medicine to tetanic horses. 

Having proceeded thus far, the disease should be attacked as 
much as possible locally. It is evidently a nervous afl^ection — an 
affection of the nerves of the spinal chord ; but, unfortunately, of 
those which proceed from the lower surface of the chord, and which 
are most out of reach. We must, however, do what we can, and 
bring the principle of counter-irritation to bear as far as it is prac- 
ticable. A blister should be applied from the poll to the rump. 
The common blister ointment (Recipe 27, p. 80) will be as effectual 
as any. Some practitioners, and with very good effect, have car- 
ried the principle of counter-irritation a great deal further — they 
have blistered almost the whole of the sides and the belly. They 
have by this means excited such extensive inflammation of the skin, 
that, on the undoubted principle that no two perfectly distinct and 
violent inflamniations can exist in the frame at the same time, the 
original affection of the spinal chord has subsided and disappeared. 
Setons also have been inserted along the course of the spine, with 
the view of causing the blister to act under the skin, and nearer 
the seat of disease; but they have rarely been productive of decided 
good effect. In order to produce more determination of blood to 
the skin, and thus relieve the spinal inflammation, sheep-skins 
should be placed on the horse's back, applied warm from the ani- 
mal, reaching from the poll to the tail, and changed as often as 
they become offensive. 

Another way of treating the disease locally is, to find out, if pos- 
sible, the wound or injured part from the irritation of the nerves of 
which the mischief has proceeded. Some nervous fibril may be 
compressed there; — a few deep incisions across the wound will 
liberate it. A morbid action going forward in the wound may pro- 



118 TETANUS. 

duce this sad affection of the nerve; — the cautery, or the caustic, 
will produce a healthy surface, and the irritation may cease. If 
the disease is from docking-, another of the caudal vertebrse should 
be removed ; if from nicking-, the incision should be made deeper. 

In some cases there may not appear to have been any local in- 
jury; but exposure to cold, the dripping of water on the back, in- 
dig-estible food, or various diseases, may have produced it: then 
general means alone can be adopted. 

The physic havino- be^un to work, or having been repeated until 
its effect is produced, the practitioner will next look around him 
for some sedative medicine in order to allay the dreadful excitation 
of the nervous system. Opium is the sheet-anchor here; and in 
conjunction with camphor it is almost uniformly beneficial. Two 
drachms of opium should be given as a first dose, with one drachm 
of camphor ; and a drachm of opium with half the quantity of cam- 
phor should afterwards be given four times in the day. The medi- 
cine may be given as a drink by means of the pump ; or, if the jaw 
is not quite fixed, a small ball, or successive portions of a ball, may 
be delivered in the back part of the mouth, by means of a pointed 
stick. 

As for food — the horse is not able to take any solid nourishment, 
but he may have a mash more than usually wet in his manger, and 
a bucket of gruel may be slung in some part of the box, from either 
or both of which he may, perhaps, contrive to extract a little 
nourishment. Should it be possible to insert a small horn or the 
neck of a small bottle between his tushes and his grinders, almost 
any quantity of gruel may be given him, for the appetite of a teta- 
nic horse rarely fails him, although he may be unable to eat; and 
when he is in a manner starved, it is interesting to see how 
eagerly the poor fellow will take what is attempted to be given to 
him in this way. The dreadful cramp of the muscles of his neck 
should not, however, be forgotten ; and the gruel should be given 
to him as gently as possible, and without elevating his head more 
than is absolutely necessary. Frequent injections of arrow-root or 
gruel may also be thrown up. 

While this is going forward the bowels must be kept in a re- 
laxed state, and doses of aloes given occasionally in order to ac- 
complish this purpose. 

Nothmg more than this can be done ; and the use of these means 
must be persevered in day after day, and week after week. It oc- 
casionally happens that the horse does not begin to amend until ten 
or twelve days have elapsed ; and in one case that occurred in the 
practice of the editor of this work, a month passed without more 
than an occasional remission of the symptoms, and that to a very 
slight degree. The treatment was nevertheless persevered in, and 
the animal perfectly recovered. 

When the horse does begin to get better, not a particle of medi- 
cine should be afterwards administered. By giving tonic medicines 



EPILEPSY — FAL3Y. 119 

much dangerous excitation may be produced. The best tonic is 
nourishing food, and even that should be supplied with caution. 
Green meat would be useful, but the animal must not be exposed 
to too much cold. If the weather, however, will admit of it, a run 
of two or three hours every day on good pasture will be of essential 
benefit. It will not only sooner bring him to the use of his limbs, 
but the grass will be an alterative and a tonic. 

EPILEPSY. 

Horses are not often subject to fits, any further than megrims 
and stomach-staggers may somewhat loosely and improperly rank 
under this head : megrims and staggers, however, clearly arise 
from undue determination of blood to the head ; epilepsy may pro- 
ceed from some source of nervous irritation unconnected with any 
unusual flow of blood to the brain. Colts are now and then subject 
to' true epilepsy ; full-grown horses are more rarely attacked by it. 

There is no warning of the attack. The animal may be in the 
field or at home, at work or standing idle, when all at once he 
looks round him in a strangely frightened manner ; he trembles, 
and falls; convulsions follow, sometimes slight, at other times, 
horrible enough; every part of the face is particularly convulsed — 
the person who has seen a horse in a fit will never forget this. 
The fit, however, soon passes over; the animal lies still for a mo- 
ment, then gets up, looks unconsciously about him, and in a minute 
or two comes quite to himself, and begins to eat as if nothing had 
occurred. 

Fits are very bad things, for the habit of having them is soon 
formed, and is very seldom or never broken. The cause can rarely 
be discovered, and still more rarely removed; and the best thing to 
be done is to get rid of the animal as quickly as possible. 

PALSY. 

The horse is seldom or never subject to that kind of palsy which 
oftenest attacks the human being, palsy of one side ; nor has he 
often general palsy: When it does occur it is usually of the hinder 
limbs. It may be the consequence of disease. Much stifliiess of 
gait always accompanies inflammation of the kidneys, and some- 
times degenerates into palsy. It has been the consequence of 
inflammation of the bowels, — severe purging, — exposure to cold, — 
poisons; but it is oftener the result of injuries of the spine, caused 
by accident or brutality. Falls in rapid action, and more particu- 
larly in leaping; awkward casting, or violent struggles after cast- 
ing; blows on the back or loins; a heavy rider urging a small or 
weak horse too far or too fast; — all these are causes of palsy. 

If palsy is the result of previous disease it will sometimes disap- 
pear when its cause is removed. If it does not, warm clothing, 
and the application of stimulating liniments, as the mustard poui- 



120 INFLAMMATION OF THE STOMACH. 

tice, or the common liquid blister (Recipe No. 31, p. 83), must be 
resorted to. 

RECIPE (No. 45). 

The Mustard Poultice. 

Take — Of mustard-flour and linseed-meal equal parts, and mix them 
together with a sufficient quantity of boiling vinegar. 

This is one of the most powerfully stimulating applications that 
can be used, and it is perfectly safe. 

When paLsy is the result of accident or violence, the horse 
should be bled and physicked, and the back or loins well fomented 
with hot water several times in a day, for two or three days ; after 
which the mustard poultice or liquid blister should be applied. 
Slii^ht contusions on the spine, or sprain of any of its joints, may be 
thus relieved ; but if there is dislocation or fracture, the sooner the 
poor animal is put out of its torture the better. 

There are very few hardly-worked draught horses that have not, 
to a greater or less degree, evident stiffness of action ; and it is 
scarcely credible to what an extent the spine will appear to have 
suffered, on examination after death. Anchylosis, or loss of motion 
in the joints, has extended along almost the whole of the back and 
loins. A very common and unsuspected cause of this is the nar- 
row stalls of some crowded or ill-built stables. The horse is often 
compelled to bend himself into a half-circle in order to turn. The 
ligaments of some of the joints of the spine must be stretched and 
sprained by this, and especially when the animal is too frequently 
forced to bustle round as quickly as he can at the command of a 
brutal servant. This injury may appear to be slight and temporary, 
but the repetition of it causes inflammation of the ligaments of the 
spine, and a conversion of them into bony matter; then, a degree 
of palsy that interferes much with the action and usefulness of the 
animal, and that can never be removed, is the result. 



CHAPTER XXir. 

INFLAMMATION OF THE STOMACH — POISONS — BOTS — WORMS. 

The stomach of the horse is very small compared with the bulk 
of the animal. Nature designed this, in order that its weight 
might not rest too oppressively on the diaphragm, and interfere with 
the action of that important respiratory muscle, and especially in 
rapid exercise. 



INFLAMMATION OP THE STOMACH. 121 

The stomach is not only small, but it is singularly constructed. 
Nearly one-half of it is covered with insensible cuticle, and the 
food remains but a short time in the other villous and more sensi- 
tive and true digestive part; therefore it is comparatively little 
subject to inflammation : nor are the distinguishing symptoms of 
inflammation of the stomach well understood. 

The stomach, however, occasionally becomes inflamed by the 
administration of poison or improper drugs. The most common 
vegetable poison is the yew. The horse will rarely eat it when 
green; but the half-dried clippings of the yew-tree are«now and 
then picked up. It will be well to remember this distinction when 
any case of supposed poisoning by yew occurs. The horse may 
often graze without danger, although there are yew trees about, or 
although the field may be surrounded by a yew-hedge. Natural 
instinct will teach him to avoid that which would be injurious ; but 
when the clippings are dried, and the appearance, and smell, and 
taste of the yew considerably change, danger results. 

The principal symptom of this kind of poisoning is a strange kind 
of drowsiness. The horse stands, propped up by a gate or wall, 
with his head hanging down almost to the ground, and he is regard- 
less or unconscious of every thing around him. At other times he 
lies down, breathing loudly and hardly, and is with difficulty roused 
to momentary attention, while it is almost impossible to make him 
rise. In this way he sleeps or dozes on, until slight convulsions 
occur, and he presently dies ; or else he sleeps himself away with- 
out consciousness or pain. 

The nature of the poison having been understood. Read's stomach- 
pump is to be had recourse to, and plenty of water thrown into the 
stomach until the animal is induced to vomit ; or, if the act of 
vomiting, which is always excited with difficulty, cannot be induced, 
the fluid may be readily drawn out again, and fresh water injected 
until the stomach is well washed out. Then the following drink 
should be given : — 

RECIPE (No. 46). 

Drink for Poisoning hy Yew. 

Take — Strang physic drink (Recipe No. 10, p. 55), four ounces, with 
the farina of the crolon-nut. Add, 

Vinegar, four ounces; 
Thick gruel, four ounces. 

After the first dose the vinegar and warm water, with two ounces 
of the strong physic drink, but without the croton, should be given 
every six hours, until purging is produced ; and, after purging has 
commenced, two ounces ot vinegar, with an equal quantity of warm 
water, should be administered every two hours. 

The Mayweed (a species of wild camomile, Anthemis cotula) 



122 POISONS. 

has sometimes, like the yew, caused violent illness and death. This 
is seldom eaten when found green in the field ; but when mingling 
in its dried state, and in too great quantity, with the hay, it has 
done mischief. The stomach-pump should here also be immediately 
resorted to, with the gruel and vinegar; and, if costiveness follows, 
twelve ounces of linseed-oil should be given every six hours, until 
purging is produced. The oil may be mixed with the yolk of an 
egg, and a few drops of oil of aniseed added. 

The Water Parsley has sometimes produced palsy, and the Water 
Dropwort has poisoned brood mares, who have taken it under the 
influence of that capricious appetite which all animals occasionally 
display during the period of pregnancy. The stomach-pump should 
here also be used, followed by bleeding, and the administration of 
vinegar and thin gruel. 

If horses are destroyed by the mineral poisons, it is generally to 
be attributed either to design or unskilful treatment. All of the 
mineral poisons, in certain doses, are useful in many diseases; in 
fact, they sometimes constitute almost the only means of cure : but 
the dose being too large, or the use of the drug too long persisted 
in, the animal may be destroyed instead of the disease. 

It is fortunate for the horse that Arsenic is not so frequently 
resorted to, as an internal medicine, as it once was. It was always 
a dangerous tonic, and especially after acute disease. Many a 
horse that would have gradually recovered from strangles, epidemic 
catarrh, or inflammation of the lungs, has been lost by the practi- 
tioner being in too great a hurry to get him well, and administering 
arsenic. In cases of worms it has too often been given with fatal 
eff^ect. It may be used with less danger as an external application. 
It has been applied largely in cankered feet, and many cases of 
ulcers; but it has occasionally done mischief here, and there are 
many safer and better caustics. 

The symptoms of poisoning by arsenic are, the evident expres- 
sions of intense pain : the haggard countenance of the horse ; the 
eager gaze at the flanks; the pawing and rolling; while the saliva 
runs from the mouth, and the purging is profuse, and sometimes 
bloody. 

The case may not always be quite so plain, or the owner may 
wish to ascertain the truth or falsehood of some horrible suspicion. 
The presence of arsenic is then very easily detected. Some of the 
more fluid contents of the caecum should be boiled in a glass or 
china vessel, and filtered through blottmg-paper. A weak solution 
of blue vitriol, to which a few drops of hartshorn have been added, 
should then be poured into the clear liquor, and the presence of the 
arsenic vvill be detected by the fluid immediately, or after a little 
standing, assuming a green colour. A portion of the more solid 
contents of the intestines may be put on a p?late of red-hot iron, and 
if there is any arsenic, a strong smell, resembling that of garlic, 
will be perceived. 



BOTS. 123 

The treatment will rarely be successful. The poison will too 
frequently have done its work when the symptoms become suffi- 
ciently urgent to be recognised. Read's pump should be put into 
immediate requisition ; and after the stomach has been well washed 
out, plenty of lime-water, or of chalk and water, should be injected, 
in order to convert the oxide into a less destructive carbonate. 

Poisoning from Corrosive Sublimate is usually the result of 
unskilful treatment. Lotions of it are employed for tlie cure of 
mange, or the destruction of vermin, although, unfortunately, it is 
much more easily absorbed than the arsenic. Sometimes, also, the 
animal may lick off a fatal portion of the drug. 

The symptoms are nearly the same as those from poisoning by 
arsenic. The test will be lime-water, which will change the 
slightest solution of corrosive sublimate to an orange colour. The 
remedy will consist of the whites of eggs mixed with starch or 
gruel. 

WORMS. 

BoTS are the larvae or maggots of a species of gadfly (the CEstrus 
equi), which deposits its eggs on those parts of the horse that the 
animal is most apt to lick. The egg is immediately hatched by the 
w'armth and moisture of the tongue; the little worm adheres to the 
tongue, and is conveyed into the month ; and thence it crawls down 
the CBsophagus into the stomach. It adheres to the cuticular coat 
of the stomach, by means of little hooks, with which its mouth is 
furnished ; and there it remains from the summer of one year to 
the spring of the next, nourished by the mucus of the stomach, or 
the food which it contains. Then, having attained its full size as a 
maggot, it loosens its hold, and is carried along the intestines with 
the other contents of the stomach, and evacuated with the faeces. 
Before it drops, it generally clings for a while to the verge of the 
anus; while doing this it tickles and teases the horse, and that 
sometimes to a very great degree. When the groom sees the hot 
under the tail, he is alarmed, and thinks that it must be doing a 
great deal of mischief, and he hastens to give strong and injurious 
purgatives, in order to get rid of the evil. 

Bots, except they exist in most unusual numbers, do neither good 
nor harm during their residence in the stomach of the horse. It is 
the habitation which nature assigned to them ; and the safety of so 
noble an animal as the horse would not have been compromised for 
the sake of a maggot and a fly. The advice, therefore, to the 
owner and the groom would be — let thetn alone; or, at most, to 
be content with picking them off when they appear under the tail. 
There are two good reasons for this: the first is, that there is not 
any medicine that will expel them: the strongest and even the 
most dangerous purgative is insufficient. The horse may be in- 
jured or destroyed by the violent measures adopted ; but the bot seta 



124 WORMS. 

the practitioner at defiance. ^ The second reason is, that, if the bots 
are let alone, they will, in due time, come all away without our help 
or meddling. At the latter end of the sprin<T the larva detaches 
itself from the stomach, is carried along- the intestines, drops on the 
ground, burrows into it, and becomes a chrysalis or grub. In a few 
weeks it undergoes another and more wonderful transformation : it 
awakes from its state of sleep, bursts through its horny shell, and 
assumes the form of a fly. 

There are, however. Worms in the intestines which are injurious 
to the horse, yet seldom to the extent which the groom fears. The 
small intestines contain a round white worm, from six to twelve or 
fourteen inches in length. This worm (the Lumhricus teres) very 
much resembles the common earth-worm, and it lives either upon 
the mucus of the bowels, or the chyle, or the nutritive part of the 
food. A strong dose of physic will often expel an almost incredible 
number from a horse that was apparently in perfect health : there- 
fore, the appearance of one or two should never cause alarm. 

It is however probable that, when the intestines are in a manner 
full of them, they may take away too much of the nutriment of the 
food, and may also irritate the coats of the intestines. The proof 
of the existence of this injurious quantity of worms will be the un- 
thrifty appearance of the horse; the tucked-up belly; the staring 
coat; a ravenous appetite; or a harsh hollow cough. 

Even now it will not be necessary to have recourse to any vio- 
lent measures. No strong mercurial physic, which endangers or 
half kills the horse, is needed. The following ball will usually be 
effectual, and cannot possibly do harm : — 

RECIPE (No. 47). 

Worm Ball, for Long Round Worm. 

Take — Emetic tartar, two drachms; 

Powdered ginger, half a drachm; 
Tin-filings, six drachms; 
Linseed-meal, one drachm ; 

Make into a ball with palm-oil. 

One of these balls should be given every morning, half an hour 
before the first feed ; and, after six or eight of them have been taken, 
the horse t^hould have a dose of common physic, if he can be spared 
from his work : but the physic, however, is not necessary in the 
majority of cases. 

A quart of linseed-oil is the best purgative in cases of worms. 

The owner should not be dissatisfied if only a few worms are 
voided. They are usually destroyed within the intestines by the 
emetic tartar, and digested there. The best proof of the medicine 
having been effectual will be that the worms cease to appear, and 
the horse improves in condition. 



WORMS. 125 

Another kind of worm (the Ascarides) inhabits the larger intes- 
tines, and particularly the last of them, — the rectum. It is a little 
worm, two or three inches in length, and not much larger than 
small twine; but it often exists in very large quantities. It is 
rarely dangerous; but it is occasionally sadly annoying, for it causes 
great irritation and itching in the lower intestines, and about the 
anus, and sometimes this irritation has produced extensive inflam- 
mation. 

The strongest physic, as it is usually administered, will seldom 
expel the ascarides. They must be attacked in their stronghold, — 
their very residence. 

RECIPE (No. 48). 

Injection for Ascarides, 

Take — Powdered aloes, half an ounce; 

Powdered gum arabic, half an ounce ; 

Pour on tliem half a pint of boiling water; shake the mixture weli 
until the aloes arc dissolved or suspended ; then take 

Linseed-oil, one quart; and 
The white of an egg: 

Rub them well together until they are thoroughly incorporated ; and 
gradually add the solution of aloes, stirring the oil as the aloes are 
added. 

Let this be injected into the rectum, twice in the week, as long 
as any ascarides are voided with the injection. 

There is another slender worm which somewhat resembles the 
ascarides, though rather longer and larger: it is called the Stron- 
GYLUs, and when voided its body is dark. 

In the treatment of them, as well as other kinds, due regard 
should be paid to the general health. Powerful medicines should 
not be given when there is great poverty and debility, but vege- 
table tonics should be first employed to amend the condition of the 
animal. 



126 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

INFLAMMATION OF THE BOWELS— SPASMODIC COLIC — FLATULENT 
COLIC — STRANGULATION — CALCULI IN THE INTESTINES. 

Of inflammation of the bowels there are two kinds, — that of the 
external and the internal coat. 

ENTERITIS ; INFLAMMATION OF THE EXTERNAL AND MUSCULAR 
COATS OF THE BOWELS. 

This is a very frequent and fatal disease, and is recognised by 
the farrier under the name of the red colic. It is caused by the 
application of cold to the belly of the horse, either by taking- him 
into the water, or washing him about the belly with cold water, or 
suffering him to drink plentifully of it when he is heated. Exposure 
to rain, over-exertion on a full stomach, and especially after the 
horse has been fed on dry, stimulating food ; also the previous exis- 
tence of inflammation of the lungs, are very usual causes; but the 
disease will sometimes occur without any assignable cause. From 
whatever cause it arises, it runs its course with fearful rapidity. 
Like pneumonia, it sometimes destroys the horse in less than 
twenty-four hours, and occasionally in less than twelve. 

The symptoms of enteritis should be carefully studied, for many 
a horse will be lost when they are not early recognised. One of the 
earliest symptoms is the expressionof very acute pain. The animal 
paws ; strikes at, although he does not touch his belly ; looks at his 
flanks with a more sudden turn, and a wilder gaze, than in inflamma- 
tion of the lungs; rolls; struggles violently; lies upon his back; 
groans; the legs are cold; the mouth not hot, and sometimes 
clammy cold ; the membrane of the nose very little reddened, some- 
times paler than the natural hue; the flanks heave violently; the 
horse shivers and sweats; the pulse is quick and hard, yet often 
scarcely to be detected ; and the belly is hot, and exceedingly 
tender. The violence of the symptoms, however, soon begins to 
abate, and the horse soon becomes weak and scarcely able to stand. 

This disease may be di.-^tinguished from colic by the pain, though 
less violent, continuing without remission; also by the quickness of 
the pulse, coldness of the extremities, and high colour of the eyelids 
and nostrils. 

The treatment is plain enough. The patient must be bled 
promptly and copiously; the stream must flow until fiiinting nearly 
or quite succeeds. This is another of those diseases in which there 
js a golden moment that must not be snfl^ercd to escape. In the 



INFLAMMATION OF THE BOWELS. 127 

early stage the horse will bear that kind of bleeding which is 
necessary to subdue an inflammation so intense; but, twelve hours 
having passed, the strength of the animal will be exhausted, and 
copious bleeding will not be practicable; or, if it were, it would not 
be safe. 

The next thought should be about some local application. Strong 
physic is out of the question ; the bowels are already too irritable; 
it would be adding fuel to fire : but mild aperients may be adminis- 
tered. Linseed oil, however, is the only aperient that can be 
ventured on. A pint may be given where costiveness is present, 
and with it the following : — 

RECIPE (No. 49). 

Take — Powdered opium, two scruples; 

Sweet spirit of nitre, six drachms; 
Warm water, four ounces. 

This medicine may be repeated every six hours with half a pint 
of the oil, which, however, should generally be discontinued after a 
quart has been administered, whilst the opium, &c.,,may be con- 
tinued longer. Frequent injections should be thrown up. 

Next comes the important principle of counter-irritation. The 
whole of the belly should be stimulated either with the strong liquid 
blister (Recipe No. 30, p. 82), or spirit of turpentine; and these 
appliances should be as hardly and thoroughly rubbed in as the 
tender state of the belly will allow. Hot fomentations, or the appli- 
cation of steam to the abdomen, should also be employed, and in 
desperate cases it has even been fired with good eflTect. The 
horse, at the same time, should be warmly clothed, and his legs 
bandaged ; for these may cause some determination of blood to the 
skin and the extremities, and, in that proportion, relieve the 
inflamed part. 

The horse should by no means be removed from his stall or box, 
and exercise of every kind should be carefully avoided. 

The food should consist of mashes and thin gruel, except green 
meat can be procured, which may be given in moderate quantities. 
It should be perfectly evident that the disease is subdued before any 
hay or corn is allowed; and, even then, the horse should very 
slowly return to the use of hard meat. If, when he is getting con- 
valescent, the weather will admit his being turned out during the 
day, it may be of considerable advantage to him. 

INFLAMMATION OF THE MUCOUS COAT OF THE BOWELS. 

This is usually the consequence of physic, either of bad quality, 
or given in an over-dose, or under circumstances which should have 
warned the practitioner of an irritable state of the bowels, and the 
consequent danger of physic. If physic has not been given, yet the 



128 SUPER-PURGATION. 

horse may have been ridden or driven far and fast, vi^ith nothing but 
green meat in his belly; or, and oftener than is generally imagined, 
inflammation of the lungs, or the feet, or the head, may have 
quitted its primary situation, and have attacked the mucous mem- 
brane of the intestines. Being inflammation of the internal coat, 
the numerous open vessels which secrete the mucus or the other 
fluids that are formed in the intestinal canal share in the irritation, 
and pour out an increased quantity of fluid ; and purging ensues. 
This disease can hardly be confounded with the foregoing. The 
pulse, although small, is not so much so as in enteritis, nor is it so 
hard or wiry. The muzzle and extremities are not so cold ; some- 
times they are warm. The horse shows that he sufl^ers intense 
pain; he looks anxiously round at his flanks; he is continually shift- 
ing his position; he lies down, and immediately rises again ; but he 
does not roll so violently, nor does he kick so desperately, nor is 
there any heat or much tenderness of the belly. At the same time 
he is purging instead of exhibiting the obstinate costiveness which 
generally accompanies enteritis. 

Thousands of horses are destroyed every year by over-physick- 
ing ; for the purging, once running on to the production of any 
considerable degree of inflammation of the mucous membrane, can 
seldom be effectually stopped, nor indeed would it be prudent to 
attempt to stop it at once. The first inquiry should be as to the 
length of time that the purging has existed ; the degree of pain 
that the animal has evinced ; and the nature and quantity of the 
discharge. If not more than twenty-four or thirty-six hours have 
elapsed since the physic began to work ; if the dejections are very 
foetid, or simply water, without much mucus, even although the 
discharge should be abundant and frequent, it will not be quite 
prudent to attempt immediately to arrest it; and especially if there 
is no great heat of the mouth. PJenty of tolerably thick gruel or 
starch should be horned down; and the practitioner should for a 
little while await the issue. The starch will possibly sheathe the 
coats of the stomach from the effect either of some portion of the 
physic, or the acrimony of the secretion ; and the purging gra- 
dually stop. If, however, eight-and-forty hours have passed, and 
the discharge continues as abundant as ever; or, although it may 
have decreased in quantity, and even have become thicker, it is 
voided with pain, and mingled with much slime ; and the mouth is 
hot, and the countenance anxious, and the flanks heave, and the 
pulse is much accelerated, prompt measures must be adopted. The 
heated mouth, and the heaving flank, and the quick pulse, will in- 
dicate bleeding, notwithstanding any continuance or profuseness of 
faecal discharge. There is irritation of the mucous membrane, 
which must be subdued, the very discharge of which is aggra- 
vating. Moderate bleeding, carefully watched, and stopped when 
the pulse falters, will often be of very great service. The gruel, 
or starch, must be given thicker, and in greater quantity; and 



SPASMODIC COLIC. 129 

astringent medicine must now be administered. Nothing better 
can be given than the drink recommended in Recipe No. 25 
(p. 77). It should be administered every two hours, until the 
purging begins to abate, or the painful symptoms are a little re- 
lieved, and then twice only, or even once in the day, and discon- 
tinued as soon as the case will admit of it. 

In this species of inflammation, as well as in the last, warm 
clothing, and bandages about the legs, will be of essential service, 
and the horse should be kept as quiet as possible. 

When the faeces are accompanied with much slime, the disease 
is termed Dysentery^ and is also sometimes designated molten 
grease. This slime, or mucus, is secreted by the internal coat of 
the bowels, which is in a state of inflammation, and not unfre- 
quently the bowels are constipated. 

This disease, like diarrhcea, may be brought on by cold applied 
to the surface, by over-exertion and unwholesome food. 

The treatment should consist of moderate bleeding, oily laxa- 
tives, fever medicine, and stimulants to the abdomen, and frequent 
injections, which may be followed by small doses of opium, and, if 
the liver is affected, combined with calomel ; a drachm of the latter 
being given with a half a drachm of the former once a day. 

SPASMODIC COLIC. 

This is a very frequent disease, and no horses are more exposed 
to it than those belonging to firmers. If it is timely attended to, 
little danger appears to accompany it; and almost every groom has 
a supposed specific for it, and one that is often successful. The 
chief object is to know the disease when it occurs, and not to con- 
found it with inflammation of the bowels, especially that of the ex- 
ternal coats, and which requires very different treatment. The 
circumstances by which the one may be distinguished from the 
other can be ascertained after one or two cases have been carefully 
observed. In both there is pain, stamping, looking at the flanks, 
and rolling; but in inflammation of the bowels the pain is constant; 
in colic there are moments of remission. In the first, although the 
horse stamps violently, he takes great care that he does not touch 
his tender belly ; in the second disease he often strikes his belly 
desperately with his hind feet. In the first, the belly is hot and 
tender, and pressure on it gives pain ; in the other, there is neither 
heat nor tenderness, and moderate pressure, and particularly fric- 
tion, evidently gives ease. In inflammation of the bowels, the 
pulse is, from the beginning, small, wiry, and quick, and the mouth 
is first hot, and then clammy, or deathy-cold ; in colic the pulse is 
not always affected at first, although, after a while, it quickens, but 
it becomes quicker and harder as the spasm is gradually degene- 
rating into mflammation ; and the mouth, at first of its natural 
temperature, acquires heat by degrees. There are usually some 



130 SPASMODIC COLIC. 

premonitory symptoms — as dulness, depression, loss of appetite — 
belonging to an attack of inflammation : colic often comes on sud- 
denly, and without any warning at all. Motion sadly aggravates 
the pain of inflammation: a horse with colic becomes a little easier 
if he is walked about. 

The history of the case should also be inquired into. If the 
horf^e, previously in perfect health, has, when heated, had access to 
cold water, or been exposed to a cold wind ; or if he has been ex- 
ercised violently on green meat, either colic or inflammation of the 
bowels may be the result; but if the symptoms follow a little 
feverishness, and sluggishness at work, and want of appetite for a 
few previous days, it is most probable that inflammation exists. 

The following drink should be given, in a half-pint of warm ale 
or water : — 

RECIPE (No. 50). 

Colic Drink. 

Take — Spirit of turpentine, two ounces; 
Spirit of nitrous ether, one ounce; 
Laudanum, one ounce. — Mix. 

If almost immediate relief is not obtained, it will be better to 
bleed, rather freely, as this is not only calculaled to prevent inflam- 
mation, but also materially assists in lessening the spasm. 

If, in half an hour, or an hour, relief is not obtained, the draught 
should be repeated without the turpentine, or with only half the 
quantity. If, at first, there is any doubt as to the presence of in- 
flammation, the turpentine should be dispensed with, the nitrous 
ether being increased, or half an ounce of sulphuric ether added. 
The abdomen should be well rubbed or fomented. 

After the second drink has been given without relief, it will be 
proper to add an aperient to the stimulant: accordingly half an 
ounce of Barbadoes aloes should be dissolved and given with a pint 
of linseed oil, and the stimulant before advised; but if inflammation 
is threatened, the aloes may be omitted, and the oil doubled. In- 
jections should be thrown up frequently, and the abdomen should be 
fomented with hot, or if there is much inflammation, with boiling 
water, and the other directions, given under the head Enteritis, 
should be followed. 

A horse recovering from a fit of spasmodic colic should have his 
water a little warmed for several successive days. 

In stercoral colic which proceeds from a collection of food in the 
bowels, and is attended with a cessation of the discharge of the faeces 
after a few emissions, the symptoms are not so violent, though 
longer continued and more dangerous. 

Bleeding should be employed freely, and repeated to keep inflam- 



FLATULENT COLIC. 131 

mation down ; clysters should be frequently thrown up; large doses 
of oil given every six hours, the pain being subdued by laudanum 
or opium. 

FLATULENT COLIC. 

This species of colic, although essentially different from the spas- 
modic, both in its nature and treatment, is scarcely recognisable 
from it in the early stage of the disease. The one is a spasmodic 
constriction of the bowels; the other is distension of the bowels 
from the extrication of gas. There is the same uneasiness, pawing, 
rolling, with little change in the pnlse or the temperature of the 
extremities; but in flatulent colic the distension of the stomach or 
bowels, or both, soon causes an evident enlargement of the ab- 
domen, while at the same time there is greater discharge of flatus 
per anum. 

The drink for colic (Recipe No. 50, p. 130) should be first ad- 
ministered, substituting, however, half an ounce of sulphuric ether 
for an ounce of the turpentine; but if this does not give relief in 
the course of an hour or two, the friction of the belly, and the walk- 
ing or trotting of the horse, would endanger a rupture of the intes- 
tines ; and this has sometimes occurred when the distension has 
been very great. 

Two methods of treatment have been suggested, founded upon 
the means used to remove tije hoove in cattle. The first is to 
puncture the ccecum, as the rumen of the cow is sometimes punc- 
tured. This might answer in the hands of a skilful veterinary 
surgeon, but no other should attempt the operation. It is often 
performed by the French veterinarians, and has been lately intro- 
duced by some Scottish practitioners. This dangerous operation, 
however, should only be employed as a last resource. 

Chemistry, however, has discovered a safer and far more effica- 
cious mode of cure. It has been ascertained that the gas by which 
the bowels are distended is one of the compounds of hydrogen, 
either the sulphuretted or the carburetted. Chlorine has a very 
strong affinity for hydrogen, and rapidly unites with it, and forms 
a well-known fluid that does not occupy a thousandth part of the 
space : therefore a combination of chlorine with some alkali is ex- 
hibited, and that which is most easily met with is the chloride of 
lime. Half an ounce of the powder is given dissolved in a quart of 
water. The chlorine quits the lime, and unites with the hydrogen 
of the bowels, and forms muriatic acid, and the intestines are sud- 
denly relieved from their distension; and then the muriatic acid 
thus formed unites with the lime which was liberated, and the 
harmless muriate of lime is produced. The dose may be repeated 
with perfect safety in half an hour should not the first appear to 
have its full effect. In other respects the treatment of this disease 
must pretty much resemble that befbre"described. 



132 STRANGULATION. 

STRANGULATION AND INTROSUSCEPTION OF THE INTESTINE. 

When spasmodic colic does not readily yield to the means em- 
ployed, either inflammation of the bowels is at hand, or strangula- 
tion — twisting- or tying of them — so as to cause an insuperable 
obstruction to the passage of the fssces, has taken place. Occa- 
sionally, however, the spasmodic action, being long-continued, may 
produce, or may change into, a motion contrary to the natural one 
of the bowels ; and then one portion of the gut is apt to enter into 
and bo confined in a neighbouring portion, and thus also an in- 
superable obstruction is formed. No good can be done here ; and 
we can only guess at the existence of these things by the obstinate 
costiveness of the horse, by the continuance and increase of the 
pain, and these circumstances not being attended by the expected 
degree of fever. 

[A table, distinguishing between colic or gripes and inflamma- 
tion of the boioels of horses, by the symptoms that mark the 
character of each. 

Spasmodic or Flatulent Colic, Inflammation of the Bowels. 

1. Pulse natural, though some- 1. Pulse very quick and 
times a little lower. (1.) small. (2.) 

2. The horse lies down and 2.?PIe lies down and suddenly 
rolls upon his back. rises up again, seldom rolling 

upon his back. 

3. The legs and ears generally 3. Legs and ears generally 
warm. cold. 

4. Attacks suddenly, is never 4. In general, attacks gra- 
preceded, and seldom accompa- dually, is commonly preceded, 
nied, by any symptoms of fever. and always accompanied, by 

symptoms of fever. 
.5. There are frequently short 5. No intermissions can be 
intermissions. observed. 

(1.) Pulse natural. — When in health, the pulsations or strokes 
are from thirty-six to forty in a minute ; those of large heavy horses 
being slower than those of the smaller; and those of the old ones, 
slower than those of young animals. When either are just oft* a 
quick pace, the strokes increase in number, as they do if he be 
alarmed or animated by the familiar cry of the hounds. 

(2.) Pulse very quic\and small. — Fever, if the simple or com- 
mon kind, usually increases the pulsations to double the healthy 
number. As the fever increases in violence, and particularly in 
cases of inflammation of the bowels, the pulse beats still higher, and 
reaches to a hundred in a minute, or more. To ascertain either 
state, the attendant should apply the points of his fingers gently to 



CALCULI IN THE BOWELS. 133 

the artery which lies nearest the surface. Some prefer consulting' 
the temporal artery, which is situated about an inch and a half 
backward from the corner of the eye. Others again, and they are 
the greater number, think it best to feel it underneath the edge of the 
jaw-bone, where the facial artery passes on under the skin only to the 
side of the face. Tn either case, too great pressure would stop the 
pulsation altogether; though by so trying the artery against the 
jaw-bone, will prove whether it be in such a rigid state of excite- 
ment as attends high fever; or elastic and springy, slipping 
readily from under the finger, as it does when health prevails, and 
the strokes follow each other regularly. The presence of high fever 
is further indicated by a kind of twang, or vibration given by the 
pulse against \.\\e finger-points resembling much such as would be 
felt were we to take hold of a distended whip-cord or wire between 
the fingers and cause it to vibrate like a fiddle-string, sharply. 
Whereas, in health, a swell is felt in the vibration, as if the string 
were made of soft materials and less straitened. Languid or slow 
pulse, and scarcely perceptible in some of the beats or strokes, 
indicates lowness of spirits, debility, or being used-up ; if this lan- 
guor be felt at intervals only, a few strokes being very quick, and 
then again a few very slow, this indicates Zoz/; /ever, in which bleed- 
ing would do harm, &c.] 

CALCULI IN THE BOWELS. 

In some horses, and particularly in those that work in dusty mills, 
these are not unfrequent. Some little portion of stone, or oftener 
of iron, is swallowed, and becomes entangled in the cells of either 
the coecum or colon ; particles of half-digested food, or earthy mat- 
ter, begin gradually to surround it, layer over layer, until the stone 
sometimes attains an almost incredible size and weight. In some 
instances these have been found after death when the horse had 
seemed to enjoy perfect health ; at other times he has been occa- 
sionally off his feed, or appears to have had slight, or even severe, 
colicky pains, and has been unwilling to attempt, and indeed has 
been almost incapable of, rapid action. If the presence of these 
calculi could be ascertained, there are yet no safe means by which 
they could be got rid of. 



134 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

INFLAMMATION AND OTHER DISEASES OF THE KIDNEYS AND 

BLADDER. 

The kidneys are actively employed in separating and carrying 
away the watery parts of the blood, and also a peculiar principle, 
the urea, which, if it were suffered to remain and accumulate in 
the circulation, would prove poisonous. The practitioner is some- 
times anxious to separate as much as he can the watery portion of 
the blood, because, by thus lessening the quantity of the circulating 
fluid, he lessens the labour of the heart, and also the proportion of 
blood which would be forced through parts in a state of inflamma- 
tion, and consequently overloaded and oppressed : also, by diminish- 
ing the natural quantity of blood in circulation, he rouses the 
absorbents to take up certain dropsical collections or portions of 
fluid effused in different parts of the frame. Therefore it is that 
in all cases of inflammation he adds diuretics to his sedative medi- 
cines : and places his principal reliance upon them in all effusions 
of fluid into the cellular membrane, as anasarca, or swelled legs; 
and in all collections in cavities, as dropsy of the chest or abdomen. 

Experience, however, proves that every organ overworked is 
subject to disease ; and as few organs are more overworked and 
abused in common stable management than the kidneys, there are 
few that are more frequently injured. If the kidney is too much 
irritated by the improper use of diuretics, or of any kind of food 
that stimulates the urinary organs, one frequent consequence is 

DIABETES, OR PROFUSE STALING. 

This is an annoying and a very weakening complaint ; and the 
horse affected with it cannot endure much hard work : it indicates 
weakness of the part, and leads to weakness of the frame generally. 
Diabetes is founded on, and connected with, inflammation; and, 
therefore, the first indication of cure is to abate that inflammation. 
This is attempted to be accomplished by bleeding; and which is 
particularly called for when the profuse staling is accompanied by 
any tenderness or heat across the loins. The bleeding, however, 
must not be profuse, lest, by producing some degree of general 
weakness, the weakness of the kidneys should also be increased. 

Next, the current of blood, wiiich now unduly flows to the kid- 
neys, must be diverted into another channel, and therefore a dose 
of physic is properly given. When the blood is thus determined 
to the bowels, the overworked vessels of the kidneys will have 
comparative rest, and may recover their natural tone. 

Should neither bleeding nor physic have effect, recourse must be 



INFLAMMATION OF THE KIDNEYS. 135 

had to astringent?, and particularly to those which seem to have 
power over the excretory vessels generally ; and at the head of 
these stands the catechu. 

RECIPE (No. 51). 
Ball for profuse Staling. 

Take — Catechu, two drachms; 

Opium, half a drachm : 

Linseed-meal, two drachms ; 
Make them into a ball with treacle. 

One of these should be given morning and night. If such 
astringent drugs should confine the bowels, this injurious efiect 
may be prevented by adding a drachm of aloes to each ball. At 
the same time, the dry food must be very carefully examined, and 
green meat daily given if the time of the year will allow of it. 

DIFFICULTY OF STALING. 

This is another and an opposite consequence of bad food, or the 
tampering with diuretic medicines, and is far more dangerous than 
the other. The horse strains very much in attempting to void his 
urine; the effort is evidently attended with a great deal of pain; 
and, after all, he is able to evacuate only a small quantity at a time. 
The groom, little thinking that this is owing to the closing of the 
excretory vessels, either from spasm, or swelling of the surrounding 
substance, both of which are the consequence of inflammation, 
gives a diuretic ball to overcome the stoppage. He does overcome 
it, for he determines a quantity of fluid to the part which no ob- 
stacle can resist ; but he does this at the hazard or the certainty of 
producing greater inflammation and permanent injury. 

A few mashes, a little green meat, plenty of gruel or linseed-tea, 
or, if these fail, a mild dose of physic, or possibly the abstraction of 
a little blood, will generally set all right. 

INFLAMMATION OF THE KIDNEYS. 

This is a very serious disorder, and not unfrequently a fatal one, 
because it attacks a part already in too many cases injured by pre- 
vious absurd treatment. Inflammation of the kidneys can scarcely 
be mistaken by an observant practitioner. There is considerable 
fever, even more t-o than when other organs of greater bulk are 
affected. This is clearly indicated by the heat of the mouth, the 
heaving of the flanks, and the acceleration of the pulse. The 
feeling of very acute pain is plainly shown by the frequent stead-, 
fast gaze at the affected part ; and that part is marked out by the 
direction of the muzzle to the loins more than to the belly. There 
is disinclination to move, because the inflammation rapidly spreads 



136 INFLAMMATION OP THE KIDNEYS. 

from the kidneys to the muscles of the loins, and the least motion 
of them will give intense pain. In order that there shall be as 
little stress as possible upon these muscles, the hind legs are strad- 
dled very curiously and widely apart. It is the position of the 
horse with tetanus, so far as the hind extremities are concerned, 
and for the same reason, — in order to make the legs perfectly fixed 
points. This disinclination to move, or rather the inability to move 
without acute pain, assumes, in bad cases, the form of palsy of the 
hinder extremities, and occasionally runs on to actual palsy. It 
seems to shift from side to side, and from leg to leg, in proportion 
as the inflammation shifts from one kidney to the other. If the 
hand is now placed on the loins, an unnatural warmth is felt, and 
the horse shrinks and crouches under the slightest pressure. 

The urine, which from the beginning was voided with some 
difficulty, escapes in smaller and smaller quantities, and the dis- 
charge of it is accompanied by increasing pain. It becomes high- 
coloured, perhaps bloody. It diminishes by degrees, until only a 
few drops are voided at a time, and at length it ceases altogether to 
appear ; yet still the horse strains on, and the straining is accompa- 
nied by increasing agony. 

The mere difficulty of staling, however, and its gradual ceasing, 
may be referrible to another cause, namely inflammation of the 
neck of the bladder. It then becomes necessary to settle this point, 
and that is easily accomplished. The hand well oiled should be 
introduced into the rectum. If there is inflammation of the kidney 
the bladder will scarcely be felt under the gut; but if it is inflam- 
mation of the neck of the bladder, the protrusion of the distended 
vessel cannot possibly be mistaken. 

Inflammation of the kidneys is the subject now under considera- 
tion. The case must not be played with. The secretion of the 
urine is one that can be suspended but a very little while without 
manifest danger, or certain death. The patient must be bled, and 
that as copiously as in any of the inflammations that have passed 
under consideration : he must be bled until the horse threatens to 
fall. If remission of the symptoms has not been obtained, more 
blood nmst be abstracted five or six hours afterwards. 

To this must succeed physic; but it must be physic that is not 
likely to have a diuretic effect, and which, while it will be effec- 
tual, will not irritate the neighbouring parts. Epsom salts must not 
be given. No calomel must mingle with the aloes. Aloes alone 
must be exhibited; and the solution (Recipe No. 10, p. 55) will be 
the best form, but without the croton. The effect of this may be 
quickened or secured by eight-ounce doses of linseed-oil, beaten 
into an emulsion with the yolk of an egg^ being given every eight 
hours until purging is produced. Plentiful injections of warm 
water should be thrown up, for they will answer a double purpose; 
they will assist the physic, and act as useful fomentations in the 
immediate neighbourhood of the inflamed part. 



INFLAMMATION OF THE KIDNEYS. 137 

To these, as in other cases, will succeed counter-irritation. The 
loins should be frequently fomented with hot water, or, what is far 
better, a blister should be applied over them. The majority of the 
blisters, however, in common use have a diuretic as well as a vesi- 
catory effect, and not one of them must be resorted to. Turpentine 
and cantharides must be avoided as preg'nant with mischief The 
mustard-poultice (Recipe No. 45, p. 120) will be a very effectual 
one, which has no stimulating effect on the urinary organs. 

The horse should be warmly clothed, and particularly over the 
loins. 

While the inflammation is high, little food, and that of the 
mildest nature, should be given. The patient may have a bran 
mash before him, and a bucket of linseed-tea within his reach. All 
medicine should likewise be avoided until the physic has ceased to 
operate, and then almost the only drug that can be given with 
safety is the white hellebore. 

RECIPE (No. 52). 

Hellebore Ball in Inflammation of the Kidneys, or as a Sedative generally. 

Take — Fresh white hellebore-root, powdered, half a drachm ; 
Linseed-meal, four drachms : 

Make into a ball with treacle. 

One of these may be given morning and night while the inflam- 
mation is acute ; but they must be suspended when the disease 
begins to subside, or if saliva should flow from the mouth, or the 
horse should hang his head with any appearance of stupidity or un- 
consciousness. The bowels should at the same time be kept in a 
rather relaxed state by means of small doses of aloes or linseed-oil. 

This is a disease which often leaves mischief behind it. There 
will long be a tendency to a return of it, and, perhaps, an incapa- 
bility of very hard work. The strictest attention should be paid to 
the food. Green meat will be useful. A ramble in the paddock 
during the day, when the weather is fine, is always desirable. The 
hay a nd corn should be carefully examined, and no diuretic medi- 
cine should be suffered to be brought into the stable. If the horse 
is worked, and at all hours and in all weathers, he should, if he is a 
draught-horse, have his loins protected by a leathern flap; if he is a 
saddle-horse, the rain should not be suffered to drip on his Joins as 
he stands waiting for his rider. If, after a very severe attack of 
this disease, the horse does not gain the full and free use of his 
hind limbs, or if he is pubject to inflammatory affections of the 
kidney from the most trifling causes, a charge over his loins will be 
of very great service. 



138 INFLAMMATION OF THE BLADDER. 

RECIPE (No. 53). 

A Charge for the Loins or Legs. 

Takk — Pitch, three pounds ; 
Tar, one pound ; 
Bees-wax, half a pound: 
Mix them together, and, when they are cool enough to be conveniently 
applied, spread the charge thickly over the loins, and scatter some flocks 
of short tow over it before it gets quite cold and firm. 

INFLAMMATION OP THE BLADDER. 

Inflammation of the mucous lining of the bladder is sometimes 
co-existent with inflammation of the kidneys. The nature of the 
urine is changed by the diseased state of the g-land that secretes it. 
It becomes acrid, and irritates the coat of the bladder. Stimulating 
food, some poisonous herbage, and certainly the presence of any 
strajige body, such as a stone in the bladder, are occasional causes of 
the disease. It is recognisable by the frequency of staling; by the 
mingling of mucus, or pus, or blood with the urine; by the slight 
additional heat which is felt when the hand, introduced into the 
rectum, rests upon the bladder, and also by the acute pain which 
that pressure occasions, as*evinced by the shrinking of the animal. 

Little can be done in such a case. Bleeding and mild physicking 
would perhaps be indicated, with plenty of linseed-tea; and some 
relief might be obtained by the injection of linseed-tea into the 
bladder, which may be eflfected by means of a catheter invented by 
Mr. Read. The aloes must be good, and not in too great quantity ; 
for the lower intestines generally sympathize considerably with the 
irritable state of the bladder, and if there is not much purging 
there will be tenesmus, and, perhaps, dangerous inflammation of 
the bowels. 

A slighter degree of inflammation of this viscus, and properly 
described by the term " irritability of the bladder," is frequently 
observed. The urine dribbles away in small quantities, and is oc- 
casionally mingled with blood, the consequence of some previous 
disease of the bladder, or, perhaps, oftener of some derangement of 
the digestive organs. This is suffered to continue and increase 
until the horse loses condition, the appetite is impaired, and the 
animal becomes unfit for work. 

Small quantities of aperient medicine, with vegetable tonics, will 
be serviceable in this case. 

RECIPE (No. 54). 

Drink for irritable Bladder. 

Take — Linseed-oil, six ounces, and beat it up with the yolk of an egg; 
then add 

Powdered gentian-root, two drachms; and 
Gentian, and uva ursi, of each one drachm. 
Give this every third morning. 



INFLAMMATION OF THE NECK OF THE BLADDER. 139 



INFLAMMATION OF THE NECK OF THE BLADDER. 

This disease is attended with spasm of the sphincter muscle at 
the neck of the bladder, closing the orifice so firmly that very little 
or none of the urine can escape. It may be the consequence of 
irritability of the membrane of the bladder generally ; or a stone 
pressing on or near the neck of the bladder; or gravel passing 
through and injuring the urethra ; or the diabolical custom of some 
miscreants — injecting a tincture or infusion of cantharides up the 
vagina of the mare, in order to produce or hasten the periodical 
horsing. 

At first there will be frequent discharge of the urine, then a 
gradual decrease both in the quantity discharged, and of the stream 
in which it escapes, and, at length, a total cessation of it. The dis- 
tended bladder can be plainly felt under the hand in the rectum, 
somewhat painful but not hot. 

The object in all our treatment should be to get rid of the spasm ; 
bleeding should therefore be tried to its fullest extent, and until the 
horse actually falls, and then advantage should be taken of the 
temporary relaxation of the spasmodic action thus induced to pass 
a catheter into the bladder, and evacuate its contents. From the 
curved direction of the penis, it used to be considered impossible to 
do this without cutting into the urethra at the commencement of 
the curve, and introducing a catheter through the incision (which 
was always difficult to heal), and so pushing it on into the bladder; 
but Mr.- Read has now invented an elastic instrument, which may 
be readily introduced into the bladder, without any wound being 
made into the urethra. 

The simple evacuation of the bladder will always give great 
relief, and, when it has been preceded by the full bleeding recom- 
mended, the spasm is sometimes removed at once, or does not recur 
s'o violently. 

The next step in order to subdue it will be the raking of the 
rectum, and the exhibition of a mild dose of physic. Mashes, or 
green meat, must alone be allowed as food, and linseed-lea as 
drink; and the bladder must be emptied of its contents, whenever, 
by examination through the means of the rectum, it seems to be 
distended. After this, an infusion of belladonna may be injected 
into the urethra, and thrown into the bladder. 

RECIPE (No. 55). 

Infusion of Belladonna. 

Take — The extract of belladonna, two drachms; or 
The dried leaves of bclhidonna, two ounces; 
Pour on them a pint and a half of boiling water; cover the vessel, and 
let the infusion stand until it is cold. 



140 GRAVEL AND STONE IN THE BLADDER. 

At the same time, a scruple of the powdered belladonna may be 
given internally, morning, noon, and night, made into a ball with 
linseed-meal and treacle, or the following ball : — 

RECIPE (No. 56). 
Antispasmodic Ball. 

Take — Powdered opium, one drachm ; 

Powdered belladonna, ten grains ; 
Linseed-meal, tliree drachms: 
Make into a ball with palm-oil or treacle. 

Spasm of the neck of the bladder is often unattended with in- 
flammation, and is generally produced by going too long without 
staling. It is attended with pain, though much less acute than in 
colic : the horse endeavours to stale, and sometimes succeeds in 
voiding a few drops. The bladder, of course, will be found full, 
and sometimes by gently pressing it the urine may be evacuated. 
If this does not succeed, a clyster should be thrown up, an ounce 
of laudanum given, and some blood taken, and then the flexible 
catheter, being oiled, should be carefully passed up the penis. 

GRAVEL AND STONE IN THE BLADDER. 

These are far from being unusual complaints. It is very com- 
mon to see a horse discharge a great deal of gravel with his urine. 
Several pounds have been evacuated in the course of a few months. 
There is nothing that will act upon, or dissolve, these calculi with 
safety to the patient; and all that the practitioner can do is to give 
a diuretic ball, and, an iiour after that, half a pound of common salt 
dissolved in a quart of water, in order to make the animal thirsty, 
so that plenty of water shall be drunk and discharged, and the 
gravel sooner, and more effectually, washed out. 

The symptoms of stone in the bladder, or in the kidney, are very 
obscure. Stones are found much oftener in the kidney than in the 
bladder of the horse, which is altogether contrary to what occurs in 
the human being; and, could we detect a stone there, we could 
neither dissolve nor dislodge it. Stone in the bladder may be suspected 
when the horse is occasionally subject to colicky pains ; and during 
the access of these pains he voids his urine wiih difficulty, or strains 
violently in the act of voiding it. This should be kept in mind 
whenever a case of supposed gripes is brought for examination. 

The nature of the complaint being once suspected, it is very 
easily put to the test; for, as was observed when the diseases of the 
bladder were described, that viscus is easily felt from the rectum, 
and the presence, and situation, and size of the stone readily as- 
certained. 



THE OPERATION OF LITHOTOMY. 141 

. Nothing but the removal of the stone by an operation can give 
relief; and the circumstances to be taken into consideration, with 
regard to the performance of that operation, are the age, and health, 
and value of the horse, and the size of the stone. If none of these 
manifestly forbid the operation, there is considerably more chance 
of success than in the human being. 

The operation being resolved on, the horse should be thrown, and 
one of Read's elastic catheters, with a groove, passed into the blad- 
der. This is far preferable to the common whalebone staff, for one 
incision only will then be necessary. The catheter being held 
firm, the operator makes an incision into the urethra, where it winds 
round the arch of the pelvis: into this he introduces a bistoury, 
likewise moving in the groove of the catheter or staff, and he car- 
ries his incision obliquely upwards, and through the pelvic portion 
of the urethra, and through the prostate gland, and the neck of the 
bladder, into the bladder itself, the length of the incision being 
regulated by the size of the stone, which has already been ascer- 
tained through the rectum. The bistoury should have been held 
with its cutting edge towards the angle of the thigh, and by 
this means easier access is gained to the bladder, the rectum is not 
so likely to be wounded, and the artery of the bulb and the suspen- 
sory ligaments of the penis are spared. The forceps are then intro- 
duced into the bladder, and the stone is seized so as to bring its 
smallest and narrowest extremity into the wound ; the right hand 
being in the rectum will materially assist in accomplishing this. 
The stone having been firmly grasped, is attempted to be withdrawn 
with a gentle movement of the hand, from side to side, in order to 
surmount any difficulty in the passage, and to prevent unnecessary 
contusion, or laceration. After the stone is once grasped, the ope- 
rator must be exceedingly careful not to lose hold of it until it is 
extracted. 

In a great many cases, perhaps in the majority of them, the for- 
ceps will be unnecessary; for the fingers of the left hand being 
carried through the external wound into the bladder, the right hand 
introduced within the rectum will not only direct the stone to them, 
but assist in forcing it through the orifice. No stitches are passed 
through the edges of the wound. The urine will at first flow 
almost wholly through it, but it will gradually close, and at the 
expiration of about a month will usually be healed, and the whole 
of the urine discharged through the urethra. 



10 



142 



CHAPTER XXV. 

CASTRATION, AND THE DI3EASES OF THE GENERATIVE ORGANS. 

Custom, and indeed the pleasant and safe use of the horse, re- 
quire that the colt should usually be gelded. The operation of 

CASTRATION 

is performed with greatest safety before the colt is weaned ; but as 
the form of the neck and shoulders is materially affected by the 
length of time the colt remains perfect, the carriage-horse, and the 
horse of heavy draught, should rarely be castrated before he is a 
twelvemonth old. If his fore-quarters are then large and muscular, 
the sooner he undergoes the operation the better; if they are weak 
and thin, six months more should be given to him ; but many dealers 
do not castrate until the colt is two years old. The operation should ■ 
be performed in temperate weather, and the patient should be pre- 
pared by the administration of a dose of physic. 

A great many new methods of castration have been lately pro- 
mulgated, and each has had its defenders. Wooden clams, with 
and without caustic, and with the testicle covered and uncovered, 
have been recommended : but the old method is the best ; and with 
common care, as to the weather and the preparation of the colt, and 
the proper (not too great) heat of the searing-iron, there is com- 
paratively little danger about the operation. 

A collar of the common girthing web is to be placed, not too 
tightly, about the neck of the colt, and he is then to be thrown on 
the left side. The croup is to be raised a little, and the right leg 
drawn up as far as it can be towards the collar. Some persons, how- 
ever, prefer to draw up both legs, and turn the colt on his back. 

The operator should then place himself behind, or somewhat to 
the left of the patient, according to the manner in which he has 
been thrown, and begin to examine the scrotum, and ascertain the 
situation of the testicles, and whether they are so thoroughly come 
down as to enable him to grasp them firmly. It is not always that 
he can do so; for the testicles may not have come completely down, 
and then the power of the muscle of the scrotum is great. If the 
operator anticipates difficulty in retaining them in his grasp, let him 
pull them down as low as he can, but without violence, and place a 
pair of clams above them. 

It will be, on the whole, more convenient for the operator to 
■begin with the left testicle first, and the man at the head being on 



CASTRATION. 143 

the alert, and the twitch having been put on, the operator grasps' 
the testicle, pushes it down to the bottom of the bag, and thus 
makes the scrotum tight and smooth over it: then, if he is experi- 
enced in his business, he, with one incision from before, backwards, 
and along the whole extent of the lower edge of the testicle, cuts 
through the scrotum, the dartos muscle, and the tunica vaginalis, 
and the testicle slips out. 

Some prefer to make the incision through the scrotum with a 
red-hot firing-iron. There is an appearance of brutality about this. 
The sufferings of the animal are increased, and the wound does not 
heal GO readily: in a few cases, however, and only a few, this has 
been said to be an advantage, for the incision has closed while 
matter continued to be thrown out within the scrotum. 

The operator must now shift his hand downwards, and seize the 
testicle, holding it steadily ; not drawing it forcibly out, but 
humouring the struggles of the animal, while the man 3^ the head 
is steady, and the other tightens the twitch. 

The struggles of the animal, which will probably be great at 
this time, having somewhat ceased, the operator draws the testicle 
down a little farther, and places the clams upon the cord, having 
wound a little tow about them, in order to cause them to press more 
equally and securely upon the cord, and perhaps deaden the pain, 
as well as prevent the bleeding. The vas deferens, which is con- 
tinued from the lower part of the testicle, should be divided, which 
will also save the colt much unnecessary pain. The point at which 
he will afterwards divide the cord having been settled in the opera- 
tor's mind, leaving it neither so long as to protrude from the 
scrotum, nor so short as to be seized with considerable difficulty, if, 
unfortunately, hasmorrhage should ensue, the clams are closed and 
fastened, and that sufficiently tight to stop the circulation of the 
blood, but not unnecessarily to bruise the cord. 

The cord is now to be divided. It would appear to be the most 
surgical way to do this with the knife, and afterwards to sear the 
end of the cord, in order to prevent subsequent hsemorrhage ; but 
haemorrhage will sometimes occur after this, to the great trouble 
and mortification of the operator. A better way is, to draw a firing- 
iron, with a sharp edge, rapidly and repeatedly, yet lightly, across 
the cord, and not too much in the same line, until it is divided ; the 
vessels will thus be far more securely closed, and much bleeding 
will very rarely ensue. The clams should now be a little loosened, 
that the operator may see whether the bleeding is effectually 
stopped. If there is oozing of blood, in however small a quantity, 
from the end of the cord, it is much more prudent to apply the 
firing-iron again than to run the risk of the vessels being gradually 
forced open by the pressure of the blood. There is no point, how- 
ever, about which the surgeon should be more anxious, than to 
apply the iron with just sufficient severity to accomplish the 
intended purpose, and no more ; for nine out often of the colts that 



144 CASTRATION. 

are lost in castration die from inflammation produced by the need- 
lessly severe application of the cautery. 

The same mode of proceeding being adopted with regard to the 
other testicle, the operation is at an end, except the mere cleansing 
of the part with cold water. No unguent or balsam is to be applied, 
either now, or, generally speaking, during the healing of the 
wounds. The colt should be turned into a loose box ; for the little 
exercise which he will thus take will assist the escape of any pus, 
or other fluid from the bag, and will prevent both swelling and in- 
flammation. He may even be walked out for a quarter of an hour, 
dailv; but immediately to turn the colt out into a paddock, and 
abandon him to the flies and the weather, is a cruel and dangerous 
practice. 

Little attention is afterwards necessary. A considerable degree 
of swelling there will often be, and perhaps extending beyond the 
scrotum, and along the belly ; but if, on the third day, there is a dis- 
charoe of healthy pus, there will be no cause for fear, for the swell- 
ing will gradually and perfectly subside; if, however, there is no 
discharge of pus, whether there is or is not swelling of the parts, it 
will be prudent to open the wounds a little with the fingers, in order 
that the pus which is pent up in the scrotum may escape. Should 
much fever ensue after castration, and the colt begin to be evidently 
ill, the peritoneum is probably inflamed, from sympathy with, or 
proximity to, the scrotum. General bleeding, and warm fomenta- 
tions to the parts, should be resorted to. Very great swellings of 
the scrotum, evidently containing fluid, and the integument having 
a shining appearance, are best treated with slight scarifications and 
fomentations. 

A mode of castration by means of the clams has been lately intro- 
duced and somewhat extensively practised. A dry branch of elder, 
or of some other wood, is selected, about an inch in diameter, and 
five or six inches long. This is sawed or otherwise cut lengthwise 
through the middle ; and the internal surfece of each thus exposed 
is smoothed, and a small portion of it planed off" at each end. About 
half an inch from each end of each, a niche is cut sufficiently deep 
to hold a strong waxed string, and these are tied together at one 
end, their flat surfaces being exposed to each other. 

There are two ways of operating with these clams, called the 
covered and the uncovered. For the covered, and the preferable 
way, the testicle is taken in the hand, an incision is made through 
the scrotum and the dartos muscle, taking care not to divide the 
tunica vaginalis. The scrotum must be then pushed back from 
over the testicles, and the clam placed above the epididymis, and 
the vas deferens is divided. Then, care being taken that every 
thing except the cord is detached, the other ends of the clams are 
brought over each other, and so closely and firmly tied as completely 
to stop the circulation of the blood through the cords ; others, before 
the application of the clams, cut through the tunica vaginalis, as 



SWELLING OF THE PENIS. 145 

well as the scrotum and the dartos. The clams being sufficiently 
pressed together and secured, the testicle is usually cut off; but in 
order effectually to guard against after-bleeding, the testicle is 
suffered to remain until the clam is removed, which is usually about 
the third day. The principal art in the performance of this opera- 
tion is to make the clams press equally and sufficiently firm. 

This mode of castration is almost uniformly adopted in France, 
but the generality of English practitioners adhere, and very pro- 
perly, to the old iron clams and the cauters. The patient certainly 
does not suffer half so much pain from the old operation, nor are the 
after inflammation and swelling and the danger so great. Another 
mode of castration has been attempted with considerable success, 
and which, from the comparative little pain which it inflicts on the 
animal, is well worthy of adoption. The horse is secured; an inci- 
sion is made through the scrotum, dartos muscle, and tunica vagi- 
nalis. The vas deferens and the cellular membrane above the epi- 
didymis are then detached, and the testicle is left supported by the 
spermatic artery and vein alone. A pair of forceps constructed for the 
purpose, and called the " torsion forceps," is then applied as tightly 
as possible on the spermatic artery, three inches from the epididy- 
mis, and the testicle is cut off. The forceps are then turned six or 
seven times, the cord is suffered to retract as far as it will, the 
forceps are still held that a clot of blood maybe formed, and then 
being opened, the operation is at an end. 

SWELLING OF THE SHEATH OF THE PENIS, AND AMPUTATION 
OF THE PENIS. 

Sometimes at the close of severe illness the sheath of the penis 
will become suddenly enlarged, and osdematous, and pitty. The 
treatment will depend on the circumstances of the case; but, gene- 
rally speaking, a few cordial diuretics, or a mild dose of physic, with 
gentle exercise, will effect a cure. At other times a swelling, not 
so large, but hard and painful, will proceed from the accumulation 
of oily dirty matter within the sheath. The sheath of every heavy 
gross horse should be occasionally examined, and well cleaned out 
with soap and water, a very dilute solution of chloride of lime being 
afterwards applied. This filth being long suffered to remain unno- 
ticed will sometimes cause excoriations and ulcers, eating deeply 
into the part, and producing such a mass of disease on the g'ans of 
the penis as to render it necessary to amputate that member. Masses 
of fungous substance, weighing three or four pounds, will sometimes 
cover the glans. It is useless to attempt to remove a mass like this 
with the knife or the cautery, for it will very soon sprout again. 
Amputation of the penis is the only remedy, and this is an operation 
neither difficult nor dangerous. 

The sheath should be turned back ; the penis drawn out as far 



146 VARTS — INVERSION OF THE WOMB. 

as possible, and then cut through at one or two incisions as far 
below the diseased part as may be deemed necessary. The remain- 
ing portion of the penis will be retracted within the sheath as soon 
as the operator quits his hold of it. Little hsemorrhajre will follow, 
except that a slight bleeding will sometimes be perceived for a few 
days in the act of passing urine. The orifice of the urethra i&^kept 
sufficiently open by the gush of the urine, and it is seldom that any 
unpleasant circumstance occurs. 

WARTS. 

A collection of them on the glans of the penis will sometimes 
make it impossible to retract that member when protruded, and 
render the operation just described absolutely necessary. They are 
oftener, however, on the sheath of the penis, and extend along the 
groin. In a few cases they are on the eyelids, the nostrils, and the 
muzzle. The most effectual way of destroying them is by cuttinjcr 
them off with a sharp red-hot firing-iron. The ligature is often a 
tedious and uncertain way of getting rid of them ; to cut them off 
with a knife, except the cautery is afterwards applied, is bad treat- 
ment, for they will speedily grow again, and others will appear 
wherever the flood flows. 

INVERSION OF THE WOMB. 

This is a very uncommon case, and is the consequence of violent 
throes in parturition. The protruded mass will sometimes reach 
even to the ground. If the mare has not been perfectly exhausted 
by the length and violence of her labour, and a skilful practitioner 
is at hand to return the uterus before it is excoriated or wounded, 
there is considerable probability of her being saved. Assistants 
must support the protruded mass by means of a strong, double cloth, 
while, with his arm bare to the shoulder, and well covered with 
oil, the surgeon, placing his closed hand against the fundus of the 
womb, endeavours to force it gradually back again into the vagina. 
After working hard, and for a long time, he may succeed : but he 
has then to contrive to keep the parts in their situation ; for the 
throes are apt to return under the name of after-pains, and the 
uterus will be forced out again. There are two methods of accom- 
plishing this. 

The first is, to pass two strong stitches through the lips of the 
vulva ; but the after-pains may return so violently, and that violence 
may be increased by the irritation of the stitches, that they may 
give way, and the womb be perfectly forced out again. Whenever 
this mode of treatment is adopted, a good dose of opium should be 
given to the mare; the pains may then possibly subside, and on the 
following day the stitches may be removed. 

A more successful way is, after the womb has been returned, an 



POLYPUS IN THE VAGINA. 147 

assistant in the mean time keeping his arm in the vagina, to buckle 
a girth lightly round the mare's chest — to attach a roller to this 
girth under the chest — to pass it between the fore legs — and then, 
having slit it at the point of the chest, to bring the two parts up the 
neck, and over the shoulder, and back again to the girth on the 
back, and there to fasten them securely. A second roller must now 
be fastened to the other edge of the same girth under tfie chest, and 
brought backward, and between the hind legs, and over the vulva 
and anus ; and being slit at the tail it also is carried on to the girth, 
and fastened there. This roller prevents the possibility of any pro- 
trusion, and, at the same time, is no source of irritation. The opium 
may be given as in the other case, and the pains having passed off, 
the roller may then be removed, and the mare will do well. 

The probability of ultimate success, however, depends on the 
practitioner being called in early and setting to work immediately. 

INVERSION OF THE BLADDER. 

In some rare cases the pains have been so strong as to cause pro- 
trusion of the bladder, a circumstance that would be deemed almost 
impossible. It may be distinguished from inversion of the womb by 
its smaller bulk, and by the hand passing into the vagina ; and from 
polypus in the vagina by its villous coat, and by the discharge from 
the ureters. There is no possibility of returning the bladder, and 
the advice of the practitioner should be to destroy the poor animal. 
If, however, the owner wishes something to be attempted, the blad- 
der must be amputated, and the edges severely cauterised, in order 
to stop the haemorrhage : but the urine will continue to be secreted, 
and must be discharged ; and the mare will live a nuisance to her- 
self, and a disgusting object to every one who sees her. 

POLYPUS IN THE VAGINA. 

This also is not of frequent occurrence, but it has been found, and 
of immense size. Its removal must be attempted by a ligature, 
attached as nearly to the root of the pedicle as possible. This 
ligature should be tightened daily, and in the course of three or four 
days the pedicle will generally be cut through, and the tumour will 
drop off. 

Some have attempted to remove the polypus by means of the 
knife. The objection to this is the bleeding which will often follow, 
especially if the tumour is large; but if the ligature is used, 
although the pedicle is thick and not readily cut through by it, the 
polypus may be safely taken off by the knife about half an inch 
below the ligature, and three days afier it has been applied. The 
continuance of the pressure during this time will have closed the 
vessels, and little hoemorrhage will take place, and such only as 
may be readily stopped by the cautery. 

f 



148 
CHAPTER XXVI. 

OPERATIONS ON THE TAIL — DOCKING. 

Fashion and convenience have determined that the tail of the 
horse shall usually be shortened. The length of the portion removed 
depends upon the caprice of the owner or operator ; as does, like- 
wise, the time selected for the operation. Many breeders dock the 
colt a few days after it is foaled ; and they act with much judgment 
in selecting so early a time, for the little animal is more manage- 
able; the hsBmorrhage is less; the pain is evidently less; and 
inflammation very rarely occurs. It is subject, however, to the 
objection that the young animal is partially deprived of that weapon 
which nature furnishes for the purpose of keeping off flies. 

The length of the tail being determined on, the operator searches 
for the nearest joint above or below ; for it is a matter of great 
importance, and particularly as affecting the healing of the wound, 
and the prevention of sloughing, and the probability of locked jaw, 
that the division should take place through a joint. The hair which 
grows round the joint is cut off"; and that which, although growing 
above the joint, hangs over it, is turned up and confined by a string. 
The side line is now put on, and the twitch tightened ; then, avail- 
ing himself of the partition between the stalls, or in any other con- 
venient way, the tail is cut off" at one blow, either by the machine 
or a mallet and knife. 

The gush of blood will be considerable. It would rarely happen 
in a young animal, that any danger would ensue if the tail were 
left to bleed on; but as the proprietor may be a little alarmed at 
the quantity of blood lost, or, in a very few cases, the animal may 
be considerably weakened, it is usual to stop the haemorrhage by 
means of a circular piece of iron affixed to a handle, and with a hole 
in the centre of it. This having been made red-hot, is carefully 
applied so that the ring shall rest on the muscular parts and bleeding 
vessels, and the bone shall be secure from injury in the centre of it. 
Should the iron come in contact with the bone, and sear ii with any 
severity, there will be danger of exfoliation taking place, or even of 
the bone sloughing out as far as the next joint. The iron should 
not be pressed too hardly upon the part, nor retained too long; and 
a little bleeding afterwards should not be regarded. The main 
vessels being stopped, a slight hsemorrhage can never do harm ; but 
the renewed application of the cautery might lay the foundation for 
a locked jaw. 

In a very few cases, however, the bleeding is troublesome : then 
a piece of tape must be tied very tightly round the tail, two inches 
above the wound ; a large pledget of tow, dipped in the following 



NICKING. 149 

styptic wash, shoulcl be placed upon the stump, and, over that, other 
pledgets dipped in the common tar stopping; a piece of thick poul- 
tice-cloth should be laid over that, and the whole fastened and 
buckled on as firmly as possible, and not removed for twenty-four 
hours. 

RECIPE (No. 57). 

Styptic Wash. 

Take — Alum, two ounces; 

White vitriol, two drachms; 
Dissolve in a quart of water, and keep for use. 

The bleeding having been arrested, no other treatment is re- 
quired in the majority of cases; and the horse will do much better 
at work than standing idle in the stable. 

NICKING. 

Docking is justifiable on the score of convenience. The long 
tail, which would switch away the flies in a state of nature, would 
often be a sad nuisance to the rider; but nicking is a cruel opera- 
tion, and has nothing to plead in its excuse but the supposed, and in 
many cases falsely supposed, better carrying of the tail in conse- 
quence of it. 

The side line is put on, or, by the prudent operator, the horse is 
cast : then, at about three inches from the rump, the centre of one 
of the bones of the tail is sought for, and an incision is made down 
to the bone, across the under part of the tail, and from one side to 
the other. Another or a third incision follows at the centre of the 
next bone below, or the next to that, according to the kind of horse, 
or the whim of the operator. The portions of muscle which pro- 
trude into the incisions must then be removed with a pair of sharp 
curved scissors, and so the first part of the operation terminates. 

These muscles below the tail are the agents in depressing it; 
their power is thus destroyed : but the muscles on the upper side, 
concerned in the elevation of the tail, remaining uninjured, it is 
carried somewhat higher, and that in proportion to the number or 
depth of the incisions. 

If, however, these divided muscles were left to themselves they 
would soon unite and heal, and regain their former power; there- 
fore comes the most serious and barbarous part of the operation of 
nicking. A pledget of tow is introduced into each of the incisions, 
so as completely to fill it. It used to extend the wounds to the 
utmost, and was firmly bound down into them; but so much inflam- 
mation frequently ensued, accompanied by swelling, fever, and even 
death, that these pledirets are not now either so large or so tight, 
and are confined to their only proper oflice, the stoppage of the 



150 NICKING. 

bleeding. If the horse is very uneasy they should be slackened a 
few hours after the operation, and quite removed when twenty-four 
hours have elapsed. Next to wounds in the foot, there was not, a few 
years ago, a more frequent cause of locked jaw than applying the 
cautery too severely in docking, and tying too tight, or neglecting 
to remove, the first bandage after nicking. 

The manner of turning the tail back and appending a weight to 
it by means of a cord fastened to its end, and passing over a pulley, 
is too well known to need any description !iere. Care should be 
taken that the whole weight is not hung on at once, when the tail 
is sore and painful from the operation, but gradually increased; and 
that the animal is released from the pulleys two or three hours 
every day for the purpose of e.\ercise. A knowledge of the con- 
tinued contraction of the skin and neighbouring parts, even afler 
the closing of a wound, would prompt the use of the pulleys for two 
or three weeks after the incisions are healed. 

As to the healing of the part, nothing more is necessary than the 
daily cleaning of the wounds, and the application of the tincture of 
aloes; unless the discharge should be offensive, which a weak so- 
lution of the chloride of lime will soon remedy. The discharged 
pus should be carefully washed away from the roots of the sur- 
rounding hair, otherwise it will form a filthy hardened mass, and 
the hair will certainly come off. Its being kept tightly bound up 
so long will also loosen and injure it at the roots, and render it 
likely to drop: it should therefore be occasionally untied and 
combed out. 

A new mode of nicking has lately been introduced. At the edge 
of the tail between the joints, and at the point where the old incision 
used to commence, a probe-pointed bistoury was introduced, and 
carried beneath the skin, and round the under part of the tail to the 
other side; it was then turned and the muscles were cut through to 
the bone from side to side. The open gashes of the old method 
were thus avoided, while it was thought that by the use of the 
pulley the divided depressor muscles might so far be prevented from 
perfectly uniting again as to give the required elevation to the tail : 
not only, however, has this efiTect been rarely accomplished, but tho 
blood and purulent matter have often been unable to escape through 
the small puncture made by the bistoury, and inflammation and 
sloughing have taken" place to a dreadful extent, and the animal has 
been destroyed. This mode of operating, therefore, is justly laid 
aside. 



151 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

DISEASES OF THE SKIN : — WANT OP CONDITION — HIDE-BOUND — 
SURFEIT — MANGE — MOULTING. 

WANT OF CONDITION. 

The connexion between the skin and the healthy state of the 
horse generally, and particularly the proper discharge of the diges- 
tive functions, is much closer than either horsemen or veterinary 
surgeons seem at all times to imagine. A soft, loose, mellow coat, 
easily raised from the muscular substance beneath, and the hair 
either curling naturally, or lying smooth, and presenting a glossy 
appearance, are considered in cattle as indications of health and a 
disposition to thrive; and in horses these are proofs of condition, 
and a capability of work: but the connexion between these things 
and the stomach is too much overlooked. Condition in the hackney, 
the hunter, the race-horse, or the common cart-horse, are very 
different things, but they all agree in the particulars here men- 
tioned : they all take for granted a mellow slate of the skin, and a 
smooth and natural lying of the hair. 

The skin is pierced by innumerable pores, through some of which 
exudes an unctuous naatter that gives the peculiar softness and sub- 
tleness of the healthy skin. If there is any peculiar mismanage- 
ment in the feeding ; if, unprepared, the horse is removed from the 
straw-yard to the full allowance of the stable; if the grooming, the 
clothing, or the exercise are neglected, or improperly managed, the 
evil effect of this is speedily shown by the want of pliancy and 
elasticity in the skin, and the accumulation of scurfy matter upon 
it, and the irregular lying of the hair. 

The treatment of want of condition will somewhat vary with the 
supposed cause of it ; but, generally speaking, the first thing indi- 
cated is a mild dose of physic. From eight to ten drachms of the 
physic mass (Recipe, No. 1, p. 38) should be given. A second or 
third dose may follow if the horse is much out of condition; but 
otherwise, one of the alterative balls (Recipe No. 11, p. 57), given 
on eight or ten successive nights, will, with proper attention to 
diet and clothing, and temperature and exercise, be all that is 
required. 

HIDE-BOUND. 

This is not only a suspended secretion of the oily matter intended 
to keep the skin supple, but also an absorption of the cellular sub- 



152 SURFEIT. 

Stance which is interposed between the skin and the muscular parts 
beneath; and in consequence of both of these circumstances, not 
only does the skin feel hard and harsh, but it is very difficult to 
raise it from the subcutaneous muscle below. From the same 
clinging of the skin the horse with hide-bound has a peculiar tucked- 
up appearance. It is a diseased state of the skin, and the parts 
below it; but depending upon, and produced by, a diseased state 
of the digestive organs generally. 

Mild physic, and the alterative balls, and particularly the latter, 
combined with frequent mashes, green food, and especially carrots, 
good grooming, and regular exercise, will be the most effectual 
remedies for hide-bound. 

Connected with, and often produced by hide-bound, but at other 
times quite independent of it, is — 

SURFEIT. 

This consists of lumps which appear on the skin of the horse, and 
more, perhaps, in the spring than at any other time of the year. 
They are sometimes scattered all over the animal ; at other times 
they are thickest upon, or confined to, his neck and fore parts; or 
they are seen on the loins or quarters alone. Occasionally they 
are attended by a great deal of itching ; but in other cases they do 
not seem to inconvenience the animal in the slightest degree. They 
usually appear with little or no warning, except a very slight list- 
lessness and diminution of appetite, and they not unfrequently dis- 
appear as suddenly as they came. This is particularly the case 
when they seem to run in lines, and have an appearance very similar 
to the wheals from a whip. Much oftener, however, the eruption 
assumes the form of a pustule of greater or less size, which breaks, 
and the viscid fluid that it contains clings about the roots of the 
hair, which comes off as far as the pustule had extended, leaving a 
bare spot, or one covered only by a scaly scurfiness. The hair in 
process of time usually grows again upon these spots, and there re- 
mains little or no trace of what has happened ; but in some instances 
where the case has been altogetiier neglected, and the pustules 
have been thick and large, and the horse has humour or fever about 
him, surfeit degenerates into mange of a virulent character, and 
difficult to be subdued. 

The name surfeit is an unintelligible, or, at least, it is often an 
inappropriate one. It seems to refer the eruption of the skin to 
indigestion, or to some diseased state of the stomach. There is no 
doubt that violent indigestion will produce in most animals inflam- 
mation and pustular eruption on the skin. Surfeit has been evi- 
dently traced to kiln-burnt oats, or mow-burnt hay, or poisonous 
plants: but oftener it has tbllowod the action of some direct stimulus 
on the skin, as exposure to cold when the horse was hot, and espe- 
cially at the moulting season. Whatever be the cause, the nature 



MANGE. 153 

of the complaint is evidently obstruction of the pores of the skin in 
certain parts, or universally. 

It would seem to be a curious circumstance that physic rarely 
does immediate good in this affection, and sometimes is decidedly 
injurious; but the explanation of this circumstance must be referred 
to the connexion between the skin and the stomach, and the proba- 
bility that that which for a while deranges the stomach and bowels, 
may cause a temporary aggravation of the eruption. This, however 
would pass over, and that which lowered ihe irritability of the sys- 
tem generally, would lessen the inflammatory affection of the skin. 
The cooling alterative medicine (Recipe No. 11, p. 57), so often 
recommended, will be highly useful here ; and the disease will 
generally yield to it, without the temporary aggravation and incon- 
venience produced by physic. The evening will be the best time 
for the administration of these alteratives, because the warmth of 
the stable during the ensuing night will be most likely to insure 
the diaphoretic and cleansing effect of the antimony and sulphur on 
the skin. Some attention should be paid to the clothing of the 
horse, and, more particularly, the stable should be comfortable and 
warm. 

All this should be preceded by bleeding, in a fair and moderate 
quantity, according to the size of the horse, but not to the extent 
that fever would require. The loss of three or four quarts of blood 
will often remove the surfeit without any other means being used. 
Mashes will be proper, and such green meat as the season will 
allow. , 

MANGE. 

This filthy and intractable disease is produced by various causes. 
Neglected or ill-treated, or inveterate surfeit will take on the cha- 
racter of mange. A sudden change of diet, from that which is de- 
ficient in quantity or nutriment, or both, to full and stimulating 
feeding, will sometimes produce an eruption on the skin, and 
speedily degenerate into mange. Poverty is a yet more frequent 
cause. Diseases of the digestive organs will lay the foundation for 
those of the skin, as in the cases of surfeit and hide-bound ; and it is 
easy to imagine that such deprivation of food as will occasion not 
only weakness of the digestive organs, but of the frame generally, 
will produce a worse disease. There are very few who, from false 
economy or from want of feeling, are accustomed to turn their 
horses out in the winter, where the situation is bleak, and the food 
scanty, who have not cause to repent of their folly in the spring. 
Their horses come up starved and weak, and unfit for work, and 
the general debility to which they-have been reduced will often 
have laid the foundation for a violent mangy affection that will soon 
afterwards break out. 

Contagion is, however, the chief source of mange. There is no 



154 MANGE. 

disease, not excepting- glanders itself, which is more infectious. If 
it once appears in a stable, or in a straw-yard, or on a common, 
scarcely a horse will escape from it. 

It is sometimes difficult to distinguish between mange and 
surfeit ; and yet it is very important that the surgeon or horse pro- 
prietor should recognise them at a single glance. When there is 
considerable redness on any part, changing to scurfiness as the 
inflammation dies away, and leaving the hair thinned, and the skin 
thickened and corrugated, or puckered, this is most assuredly 
mange. When there are numerous little bare places or spots, with 
or without much scurfiness, and the hair is thin between and about 
them, mange is indicated. The bare spots or patches accompanying 
surfeit are produced by the hardening of the matter discharged 
around the roots of the hair, and thus causing it to fall offj while the 
coat around is as thick as it was before, although, perhaps, not so 
smooth, from the want of condition; mange, on the contrary, pro- 
duces, and especially about the extremities, and the hind legs more 
than the fore ones, a loss, or great thinning of the hair, and where 
there is no eruption. A looseness of the hair generally, and par- 
ticularly at the edge of the mane, is a prevalent symptom of mange. 
If to these circumstances are added a great, and sometimes almost 
insupportable itching, with hide-bound, a tucked-up belly, a staring 
coat, and a marked appearance of poverty, the case can rarely be 
mistaken. 

The treatment of mange is sufficiently plain, although it is too 
often unsuccessful. Bleeding is indicated in moderate quantities if 
the animal is in tolerably good condition, but if poor it should be 
avoided. 

Physic, likewise, will be indicated, unless the animal is very 
poor, and then tonics should be given. 

After this it will be desirable to give the following alterative, in 
order to charge the system with sulphur. 

RECIPE (No. 58). 

Take — Flowers of sulphur, half an ounce; 
Black antimony, one drachm. 
Mix, and give once a day in the food for ten days or a fortnight. 

Medicine, however, will only assist in the cure. Mange is a local 
disease, and must be treated locally. Sulphur and mercury are the 
drugs which will have most efficacy here. The following ointment 
should first be tried, and will succeed oftener than any other appli- 
cation. 



MANGE. 155 

RECIPE (No. 59). 

Ointment for Mange. 

Take — Flowers of sulphur, eig'ht ounces; 
Common turpentine, two ounces; 
Strong mercurial ointment, two ouncfes; 
Linseed oil, one pint; 
First rub down the sulphur with a fourth part of the oil; then rub in 
the turpentine and the ?nercurial ointment, and bring- the whole to a soft 
semi-fluid state, by gradually adding the remainder of the oil. 

Let the horse first be curried as thoroughly as the tender state 
of the skin will permit, and all the scurf be well brushed out; then 
with the hand (there is no danger to the man) let half of the oint- 
ment be well rubbed in, wherever any mange appears, and, if 
necessary, all over the horse. This should be repeated three days, 
and, on the fourth day, the ointment which is already about the 
horse should, as much as possible, be rubbed in. Every part should 
be carefully gone over. On the sixth day the whole should be 
washed off with soft soap and warm water; it will then be seen 
what progress has been made towards a cure, and the skin will 
have been prepared for a repetition of these dressings, which will in 
the majority of cases be necessary, and almost always expedient. 

If, alter the second course of dressings, no ground appears to have 
been gained, the application must be changed. The next remedy 
that should be tried is the chloride of lime, well rubbed in with a 
wetted flannel, and four times the strength recommended in Recipe 
No. 18 (p. 68). 

If this also should fail, recourse may be had to the oil of petro- 
leum, or spirit of tar, mixed with a double or treble portion of lin- 
seed-oil, and applied with a brush, and well rubbed in. 

In cases of mange arising from neglected or inveterate surfeit, 
and which are always the most difficult to be cured, it may be pru- 
dent to proceed at once to a very strong application, which may 
torment the horse for a little while, but will often get rid of the 
disease. 

RECIPE (No. 60). 

Oil for Mange. 

Take— Oil of turpentine, one pint; 

Sulphuric acid (oil of vitriol), two ounces : 
Very gradually add the acid to the turpentine, stirring the mixture 
well, and carefully avoiding the fume?. If the acid is poured in too 
quickly, the whole will possibly burst into a flame. To this add, 
Linseed. oil, one quart. 



156 MANGE. 

Four ounces, or half a pint of this, according- to the size of the 
horse, or the extent of the disease, should be well rubbed in with a 
brush every second day, until it has been applied three or four 
times. It will appear to give the horse considerable pain. It is 
possible that some redness and thickening- of the skin may be pro- 
duced, but this will shortly pass away, and when the inflammation 
subsides, the mange will frequently have disappeared. 

The practitioner, who has once been plagued with the mange, 
will treat every cutaneous affection, and indeed almost every kind 
of itchiness about the horse, more seriously than is often done. He 
will be much to blame if he suffers any considerable itchiness to 
remain many days without bleeding and diuretics. If it is not 
removed by this, he will administer a dose of physic; and if it still 
continues obstinate, he will endeavour to persuade the owner of the 
horse to give up the animal for a few days, during which he will 
apply the mange ointment (Recipe No. 59, p. 155). Many a trouble- 
some attack of mange will thus be prevented, and no harm can 
possibly be done by the dressing beyond the temporary loss of the 
labour of the horse. 

Little spots of mange often appear about the tail or mane, and 
sometimes under the collar, which should be dressed with the oint- 
ment, and got rid of, before the constitution is affected. 

The practitioner needs not to be told how necessary it is that 
every thing about the horse, or with which he could by possibility 
have come in contact, should be thoroughly cleansed after the dis- 
ease has subsided. Infection lurks in every thing about him ; in- 
fection of which he may again become the victim, and from which 
other horses will not escape. Every article that is capable of being 
washed should be thoroughly scrubbed, first with soap and water, 
and then with a solution of chloride of lime, as recommended under 
glanders. The manger, the racks, the partitions, should also 
undergo an ablution with soap and water, and then with the chloride 
of lime. The walls and floor should be washed with the solution; 
the clothes well scoured, and afterwards washed with the solution ; 
and every thing, and more particularly the brushes, to which the 
solution cannot be thoroughly applied, should be burned. 

A horse recovering from mange should have occasional altera- 
tives, and a fair allowance of green meat, or be sent to a salt 
marsh. 

MOULTING. 

This cannot be considered as a disease. The changing of the 
coat is a natural process, that takes place every spring and autumri. 
It is, however, a critical time with the horse, and he frequently 
shows indisposition to a greater or less extent. The truth is, that 
the vital energy which, generally diflTused, should render him equal 
to his work, is partially distributed. More than the natural share 



SADDLE-GALLS. 157 

of it is determined to the skin, and employed in the reproduction 
of the hair, and therefore there is a degree of languor, and indiffer- 
ence to, or incapacity for work, about the horse: he sweats with 
the slightest exertion; he is partially off his feed; the pulse is 
somewhat quickened; and he clearly labours under a slight degree 
of fever. 

That which is wanted here is not the stimulus, nor the injurious 
cordial, which is so often employed under the delusion of the appa- 
rent debility; but something to allay the irritability and fever pro- 
duced by the unequal distrobution of vital power. A mash should 
be allowed once in the day; green meat in moderate quantities; a 
little warmer clothing should be used; violent exercise should as 
much as possible be avoided ; and either the alterative balls (Recipe 
No. 12, p. 59), or half doses of the fever ball (Recipe No. 15, p. 63), 
should be given. The first will usually be the most effectual; the 
second will be indicated if the fever should in any degree increase. 

Good grooming is now more than ever beneficial. It will loosen 
the old hair, and hasten the growth of the new, and that being once 
accomplished, the horse will regain his former spirits, appetite, and 
health. 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

THE TREATMENT OF EXCORIATIONS, WOUNDS AND ULCERS — POLL 
EVIL — FISTULOUS "WITHERS, ETC. 

The most frequent excoriations are those produced by an unequal 
pressure of the saddle, or any part of the harness, and termed 

SADDLE-GALLS. 

If properly treated before they become too large, or too much 
inflamed, or begin to deepen, they are easily cured. The saddle 
or the collar should be carefully examined, and all inequality of pres- 
sure taken away by padding or chambering. The only inequality 
which should be permitted, and that only a temporary one, is in 
order to prevent all bearing upon the sore part. 

The sore ehould be bathed two or three times every day with the 
following embrocation : — 

RECIPE (No. 61). 

Lotion for Saddle-Galls. 

Take — Infusion of catechu (Recipe No. 19, p. 68), one quart; 
Tincture of ditto, four ounces ; 
Dissolve in them eight ounces of common salt, 
11 



158 WARBLES — SUPERFICIAL WOUNDS. 



WARBLES. 

Sometimes instead of an excoriation, or loss of cuticle, little tu- 
mours will be formed by the pressure of the saddle. If they are 
very tender, and hot, they should be frequently fomented with warm 
water, and as soon as a little of the tenderness has subsided, the 
lotion for saddle-galls should be resorted to. 

SIT-FASTS. 

If, however, pressure is continued on the warbles, another change 
will take place of a very curious charncter. Ulceration commences 
around the warble, and the injured cuticle separates all round from 
the healthy and sound skin: it nevertheless still adheres firmly to 
the parts beneath, so firmly indeed as to warrant the name which 
is given to this process: the cuticle deprived of its vitality separates 
from the parts around, but sits fast upon those beneath. 

The parts beneath must be roused to activity, in order to be 
better enabled to throw the sit-fast off by the natural process of 
sloughing. A blister should be applied over the part, and in two 
or three days the sit-fast will either fall off, or may be separated 
without difficulty, and a superficial sore or ulcer will remain; or 
instead of this, or at first, the sit-fast may be dissected out with a 
knife. 

SUPERFICIAL WOUNDS. 

Few ointments agree with the horse, and all wounds whether 
superficial or deep will be more speedily healed by the application 
of a liquid balsam. The tincture of aloes is the cheapest and the 
test of any. 

RECIPE (No. 62). 

Tincture of Aloes. 

Take — Barbadoes aloes, powdered, eight ounces ; 
Myrrh, powdered, one ounce ; 
Proof spirit, two quarts; 
Water, one quart : 
Left thei« infuse for three weeks, shaking them well daily. 

The wound should be bathed with this twice every day. If there 
is no danger that the horse will get at it, to lick or nibble it, or 
that dirt and gravel will get into it, the wound will sooner heal by 
being kept open, than by any careful exclusion of the air. Should 
the surface of the sore become unhealthy, and especially should 
fungous granulations threaten to spring up, they should be washed 
with the following lotion, before the tincture is applied: — 



INCISED AND LACERATED WOUNDS. 159 

RECIPE (No. 63). 

Mild Caustic Wash for Wounds. 

Take — Sulphate of copper (blue vitriol), an ounce; reduce it to a pow- 
der, and dissolve it in a pint of water. 

If this is not sufficiently strong to repress the fungus, a powder 
may be lightly sprinkled over the sore. 

RECIPE (No. 64). 

Caustic Powder for Wounds. 

Take — Acetate of copper (verdigris), and super-acetate of lead (sugar 
of lead), equal parts: reduce them to powder, and rub them together in 
a small porcelain mortar. 

Sprinkle a little of this powder over the wound, and cover it with 
the pledget dipped in the tincture of aloes. 

INCISED AND LACERATED WOUNDS. 

The grand principle in the treatment of these wounds is to close 
them as much as possible by the first intention. If it is a simple cut, 
and the edges not lacerated, and they are neatly brought together 
and confined by a bandage or adhesive plaster, they will adhere, 
and the wound, or the greater part of it, will speedily heal. 

In a deeper and lacerated wound, some parts of it may, by the 
removal of a few ragged portions, or even without this, be brought 
together, and healed somewhat in the same way. All that is neces- 
sary in these cases, is to leave an orifice, or opening, as much as 
possible in the lowest and most dependent part of the wound, in 
order that the natural discharge from it may readily escape. 

The wound should be carefully cleansed from dirt, gravel, and 
extraneous matter. If there is much inflammation, it should be 
poulticed ; but the poultice should not remain after the inflammation 
has abated, and the wound begins to look healthy and discharges 
good pus. 

The wound should be kept cleaned, and the tincture of aloes 
should then be applied externally, or injected into the wound, if it 
is of any considerable depth. The mild caustic wash (Recipe No. 
63, above) should be applied, if the suppuration does not go on well, 
or fungus should threaten to grow, or the caustic powder (Recipe 
No. 64, above) may be sprinkled over it: if the discharge should 
become oflTensive, the solution of the chloride of lime (Recipe No. 
18, p. 68) should be freely used. 

After violent contusion, injuring and destroying the cellular mem- 
brane, or muscular substance beneath, a deeply-seated and corroding 



160 POLL EVIL. 

abscess is sometimes formed. The horse is particularly subject to 
two of these. 



POLL EVIL. 

From accident or brutality the horse occasionally receives a 
violent blow on the back part of the head, and the cellular and 
muscular substance of the poll and over the atlas, or first bone of 
the neck, becomes bruised. Inflammation follows ; the part be- 
comes hot and tender; it enlarges, and, at length suppurates, and 
breaks; and an ulcer very difficult to heal is formed. This happens 
much oftener in country than in town practice, either because the 
roof of the stable, or the doorway, is too low, and a horse in the 
least degree restive bruises himself against them ; or because country 
horses are far more exposed to brutal treatment than the owners 
dream of The practitioner always looks at a case of poll evil with 
a great deal of suspicion, and institutes every inquiry ; and the owner 
should never spare the fellow whose ungoverned passion or careless 
management has caused the mischief. 

The veterinary surgeon should carefully examine the case, and 
think whether there is so much inflammation, or tendency to sup- 
puration, as to prohibit the attempt to disperse the tumour. 

The following lotion will be as effectual as any for tiiis purpose : — 

RECIPE (No. 65). 

Discutient Lotion for Poll Evil. 

Take — Common salt, four ounces; 
Vinegar, half a pint ; 
Cold water, a quart ; 
Spirits of wine, an ounce ; 
Laudanum, an ounce : 
Dissolve the salt in the fluids, and bathe the parts well with it three 
or four times a day. 

If this does not succeed, the effect of cold may be tried. Nitre, 
while dissolving in water, cools the liquid many degrees. 

RECIPE (No. 66). 

Cooling Lotion. 

Dissolve an ounce of nitre in a pint of water, and use it the moment 
the solution is complete. 

A colder lotion (and every thing should be attempted in order to 
disperse the swelling, when there is a possibility of so doing) will 
be formed by adding half an ounce of sal-ammoniac to the nitre. A 



POLL EVIL. 161 

greater quantity of sal-ammoniac would produce a still colder 
lotion ; but there would be danger of its irritating the skin, and 
hastening rather than retarding the process of suppuration. 

To these local applications should be added the most efficient 
general sedative treatment. The horse should be bled, and until 
the pulse is evidently affected : a strong dose of physic should be 
given, and mash-diet alone allowed. 

Should suppuration have commenced when the practitioner is 
first called in, or should it appear in the most circumscribed spot 
afterwards, the plan must be entirely changed, and every effort 
made to hasten the perfect formation of the matter. Linseed-meal 
poultices should envelope the part, and to each of them an ounce of 
common turpentine should be added; and if the swelling does not 
then come quickly to a head, the mustard-poultice (Recipe No. 45, 
p. 120) should be substituted. The horse should be better fed, and 
a fair allowance of corn given to him, not abandoning, however, the 
mashes. 

When the tumour feels decidedly soft at some part, and the 
presence of matter can be certainly ascertained, it should be imme- 
diately opened. If the suppuration is left to go on until the swell- 
ing breaks, the wound will be unnecessarily large, and, from its 
raggedness, will not easily be healed. 

The tumour having been opened, the abscess should be carefully 
examined with a probe, and the deepest part of it ascertained ; and, 
through that a seton should be passed, coming out on the side of the 
neck below the tumour. Two objects will thus be accomplished; 
no matter will lodge at the base of the abscess, for it will run out 
as rapidly as it is formed ; and the internal surface of the ulcer will 
be kept in a healthy state, and disposed to fill up. 

The part should be daily examined, in order to discover whether 
there is a deeper sinus, in which a portion of the pus is still lodged, 
and a seton should be passed in that direction, Setons should be 
passed in this way through every distinct sinus, taking care to make 
the lower opening lartre and free. 

This being accomplished, the course is simple, and a speedy and 
complete cure will sometimes be effected. In most cases it will be 
sufficient to wash the wound Vv'ell out, twice in the day, with the 
tincture recommended (Recipe No. 62, p. 158). If this does not 
appear to be sufficiently active, but the surface presents an un- 
healthy i'ungup, the mild caustic wash for wounds (Recipe No. 63, 
p. 159) may be resorted to, and the quantity of the blue vitriol 
doubled, or trebled ; and should this fail, half an ounce of sulphuric 
acid may be added to the strong lotion. 

The scalding mixtures, to which so many farriers cruelly resort, 
are sometimes very injurious. They destroy the living surface to 
which they are applied, and often increase the sloughing and the 
mischief. 

Effectual setons through every sinus, and the frequent application 



162 FISTULOUS WITHERS. 

of mild stimulating" Jotions to tiie interior surfaee of the abscess, 
comprise the whole secret of the treatment of poll evil, if attacked 
before it has deepened and spread too much, or insinuated itself 
between the muscles of the neck; and even then, all that will be 
necessary will be to increase the number and depth of the setons, 
and, very gradually, the strength of the lotion. 

Some surgeons have recourse to the knife instead of the setons. 
They boldly lay open every sinus to its very base. The principle 
is the same to prevent the lodgment of pus, and to produce a healthy 
surface. This is a very proper and efficient practice when the 
sinuses do not run too deeply, or in the neighbourhood of any im- 
portant vessels. The system of setoning, however, is the safest, 
and is generally effectual. 

The application of pressure by means of bandages and splints, so 
as to bring the sides of the sinuses together, has been found very 
greatly to promote the cure. 

FISTULOUS WITHERS. 

These are always to be attributed to carelessness. If the saddle 
has not been properly chambered, or the padding has shifted, so that 
the saddle presses upon the edge of the withers, very unpleasant 
swellings and sores will be produced which, in bad cases, may run 
on to ulcers of the same kind as those in the poll. This is even a 
more serious case than poll evil, for the sinuses may penetrate be- 
tween the shoulder, and the ribs underneath it; and wherever they 
go they must be followed, and a seton passed through the very 
deepest of them. This being effected, the same mode of treatment 
that has been recommended in poll evil may be adopted, and with 
equal success, in fistulous withers, and without the scalding mix- 
ture or the reckless use of the knife, in which some indulge. Fis- 
tulous vi'ithers are more likely to return than poll evil is, from the 
pressure which may be too soon brought to bear on a tender and 
irritable part. 

WOUNDS PENETRATING THE CHEST OR BELLY. 

The horse is not so subject to these as cattle are, but he is now 
and then staked, and occasionally gored. If the wound is on the 
side, it will be immediately understood whether it has penetrated 
the cavity of the chest by a peculiar hissing or rushing sound at 
each act of breathing, and by a bloody spume or froth being about 
the mouth of the wound. These wounds must be closed as quickly, 
and as accurately as possible; a pledget of soft tow, dipped in the 
tincture of aloes, should be placed on the wound, and over this a 
broad tight bandage, which by straps extending between the fore 
legs and over the shoulder, or between the hind legs and over the 
back, is securely fixed in its place. 



SHOULDER LAMENESS. 163 

The bandage should not, if possible, be removed during the first 
week. The wound, in a great many cases, will then be nearly or 
quite closed. If necessary a ti-esh pledget, dipped in the same tinc- 
ture, must be put on, and the bandage replaced. The chance of 
healing the wound, and avoiding unpleasant or fatal pleuritic affec- 
tion, is to keep the opening into the chest perfectly closed. 

Wounds in the abdomen must be treated in a similar way; but 
it will here be neces.sary to cast the horse, in order to favour the 
return of any protruded intestine. The part that has escaped must 
be carefully cleaned and returned, and great care taken that no 
portion of it is wounded by, or included in the suture. There need 
not be so much care about the peritoneum, and some have advised 
to include a small portion of it in the stitches, in order to form 
secure and more rapid adhesion. It must be remembered, however, 
that there is considerable danger of inflammation ; that it is a mere 
choice of evils, and should not be carelessly attempted. 

The same pledgets, moistened in a similar way, and confined also 
by a bandage carefully secured, will be necessary. 

In both cases some means should be resorted to, in order to avoid 
inflammation. The horse should be bled ; a mild dose of physic 
should be given; and he should be put upon mash diet. 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

INJURIES AND LAMENESSES OF THE FORE EXTREMITIES. 
SHOULDER LAMENESS. 

This, in a few instances occurs, but not so frequently as the 
farrier imagines. The proof of tfie lameness being in the shoulder, 
and not lower down, is the peculiar gait of the animal. The horse 
suffers pain at every motion of the shoulder, and therefore limits 
the action of the shouhler as much as he can, and scarcely, or not 
at all, lifts the foot, but drags it along the ground. This is the 
principal and most general symptom. When the lameness is in 
the foot or leg, the foot is readily lifted; in an affection of the 
shoulder the foot is scarcely lifted at all. 

Another, and even more certain mode of distinguishing between 
lameness of the foot and the shoulder, is to lift the foot, and then 
gradually extend the limb forward. If the injury is in the foot the 
horse will suffer no kind of pain from the extension of the leg; but 
if the shoulder is injured he will exhibit very great pain the moment 
the leg is attempted to be brought forward. 

The shoulder should be well fomented, a calkin put on the heel 



164 INJURIES OF THE ELBOW-JOINT. 

of the shoe, blood taken from the plate vein, and a dose of physic 
administered. If the lameness continue after this, a liquid blister 
should be rubbed on the shoulder daily, until it causes considerable 
swelling", when it should be discontinued, but afterwards repeated if 
necessary. 

Dislocation of the shoulder very rarely occurs, for the strong 
mass of muscle accumulated here renders it almost impossible; and 
should it occur, there is no method by which a sufficient power can 
be applied to replace the bone. 

The point of the shoulder, however, is exposed to injury from its 
very situation. Fomentations will form the best application in any 
serious case of bruise of this part, and there cannot be a better one 
than that composed of equal parts of boiling water and cold vinegar. 
Local bleeding will be useful if the contusion is severe. A dose of 
physic should always be given if the lameness is sufficiently great 
to render it probable that the horse cannot be worked for a few 
days. If any portion of the bone of the shoulder-blade above, or of 
the fore-arm below, should appear to be fractured, the whole joint 
should be covered with a charge, and the horse turned out. 

SPRAIN OF THE FORE-ARM. 

The muscles of the fore-arm are occasionally sprained ; the injury 
may be readily ascertained by the heat and tenderness of the part. 
The same kind of fomentations will be useful here. 

INJURIES OF THE ELBOW-JOINT. 

The most frequent injury of the elbow-joint is a tumour (capped 
elbow), usually at first soft, and growing on the point of the olecra- 
non. The capped elbow arises from various causes; the most fre- 
quent are violent blows received on the part in the act of kicking, 
and the pressure of the calkin of the shoe on the elbow by means 
of an awkward doubling up of the legs when the horse is lying 
down. The heels should be examined, and the calkins lowered. 

When it is confined to this situation, and its contents are clearly 
fluid, the best method of getting rid of it is the application of cold 
discutients, as Recipe No. 65 (p. 160), or a bandage wetted with 
the same embrocation, and so contrived as to press evenly and 
firmly on the part. If this does not succeed the humour should be 
opened. 

As the tumour enlarges its weight often causes it to become 
pendulous. It likewise changes it character; it becomes hard and 
schirrous. A seton may be passed through it, or an incision through 
the skin, and the tumour dissected out. The first is the preferable 
way, and will succeed in a great majority of cases. The seton 
(consisting of coarse tape) should be passed through the very body 
of the swelling, and should be moved morning and night. 



BROKEN KNEES. 165 

The elbow-joint is occasionally opened by kickinsf, or being- cut 
by the broken shafts in falling; or oftener still by the carelessness 
or brutality of the groom or carter. The existence of this may be 
suspected from the rapid and very great swelling of the joint, and 
the extreme heat, tenderness, and lameness; and it is clearly as- 
certained by the glairy nature of the discharge. The treatment of 
this will be spoken of when " opened joints" come under consi- 
deration. 

In a few cases fracture of the bone of the elbow has occurred. 
This is a very serious business, for when the immense stress on the 
point of this bone in every act of progression is considered, it can 
rarely be expected that union sufficiently perfect to render the horse 
capable of hard work will take place. If, however, the animal is 
valuable, a cure should be attempted, A small but strong leathern 
case must be contrived, accurately fitting and enclosing the joint. 
The surgeon will place the bones in their natural position, and then 
pour melted pitch (not too hot) into the case, so as to fill it up, and 
surround the whole of the joint with the adhesive mass. This will 
form a secure support, and the rest must be left to quietness and 
time. A sling will rarely be needed. 

BROKEN KNEES. 

Many a valuable horse is destroyed by this accident. The liga- 
ments of the joint being cut through, two bad consequences ensue. 
The air has access to a cavity unused to its stimulus, and inflam- 
mation ensues : the joint-oil also, which was interposed between 
the bones above and below, in order to prevent friction, having 
escaped, the edges of the bone press upon one another, and a still 
more violent inflammation is established, under which the powers 
of nature soon fail. Therefore the object to be accomplished is to 
close the joint, and that as speedily as possible, in order that the air 
may be excluded, and the joint-oil again collected. 

The wound must first be thoroughly cleaned, in order that it may 
be fairly examined, and all obstacles to its healing, in tl)e form of 
gravel or dirt, removed. The nature and extent of the wound must 
then be carefully ascertained, and if the joint is not found to be 
opened, it should be treated as a common wound. The probe will 
generally determine very speedily whether the ligaments of the 
joint have been cut through. The peculiar jar and feeling of the 
bone underneath, when the metal is brought into contact with it, 
can scarcely be mistaken. 

This being ascertained, the question comes whether the opening 
can be closed ; and this depends partly on the extent, and more on 
the situation of the wound. If the orifice is large, and extends, as 
it were, across the knee, and is much lacerated and torn, it will 
probably be a serious afl^air: it certainly will be so if the wound is 
opposite to the division or interval between the two rows of the 



166 BROKEN KNEES. 

knee, for a great deal of action will necessarily be going forward 
there. If the wound is opposite to the upper row of bones the case 
is likewise serious, but not quite so much to be dreaded, because 
there is somewhat less action in this part of the joint; and if it be 
opposite to the lower row the case is more favourable, for there is 
the least action. 

The old way of closing the wound is often the best that can be 
adopted, and the practitioner will go to work at once, before the 
bones have begun to rub upon each other, or the membrane of the 
joint has taken on much inflammation. Any parts of the wound that 
are much torn and lacerated must be removed, but as little as pos- 
sible should be taken away. The common firing-iron should then 
be taken, and brought almost to a white heat, and run rapidly over 
the wound, and with a medium pressure; the lines being of a 
lozenge form and near to each other, and particularly at the centre 
of the wound. 

The object of this is to produce considerable inflammation, and 
consequent swelling, and so mechanically close up the wound. A 
pledget of soft tow dipped in Friar's balsam must now be placed 
over the part, and bound down by a calico bandage four inches wide, 
and about four yards in length, and applied as equally as possible, 
with considerable tightness, and which must not be removed for six 
or seven days. If the firing was necessarily severe, the horse should 
be bled, and a dose of physic should be given. 

There must be very great swelling, and the horse must be suf- 
fering dreadfully in order to justify the loosening of the bandage 
before its time ; but two or three little snips in it, above and below, 
may give some ease. 

It will seldom be found that when the bandage is first removed 
the orifice will have been perfectly closed, and the iron should be 
in readiness, and applied again, but not so extensively, or so 
severely. The budding-iron may also be resorted to, in order more 
effectually and deeply to sear the edges of the central opening. 
Once more the woimd should not be opened for a week, and even 
then a third application of the iron may be necessary. In some 
cases the best application to an open joint will be a strong solution 
of corrosive sublimate in spirits of wine, applied frequently to the 
wound until the joint-oil ceases to flow. 

No poultice or ointment should be applied to an open joint if they 
can possibly be avoided ; the simple object to be pursued is to close 
the opening, which they will uniformly fetard : but if the surgeon 
cannot satisfactorily determine at the first examination whether the 
joint has been penetrated, a poultice may be allowed, and even a 
second, if the appearance of the first should not be decisive. The 
mtention of the poultice is tosotlen and relax the part, and to suffer 
some of the joint-oil to flow out, if the joint should really be opened. 
This fluid may immediately be distinguished from a purulent and 
an ichorous discharge by its glairy nature, resembling the white of 



SPEEDY CUT. 167 

an egg. If this appears, the poultice must be discontinued, and the 
orifice closed by means of the iron. 

The surgeon will be enabled to determine at every removal of 
the bandage whether he is making progress towards a cure; and he 
should recollect that although a fair chance of success will justify 
him in resorting to measures even so severe as those that have been 
recommended, nothing will excuse his prolonging torture when 
hope is fled. 

Some degree of blemish will necessarily remain after such a 
process of cure, and that will be best diminished by a mild blister, 
and the more perfect growth of the hair will be promoted by the 
following ointment : — 

RECIPE (No. 67). 

Ointment to promote the Growth of Hair. 

Take — Calamine powder finely rubbed down, two drachms; 
Levigated charcoal, one drachm ; 
Liquid turpentine, one drachm; 
Lard, four drachms; 
Rub them well together, and then add, again rubbing the whole toge- 
ther very carefully, 

Blister ointment (Recipe 27, p. 80), one drachm. 

Let a little of this be rubbed well, but not too hardly, into the 
part, morning and night. 

SPEEDY CUT. 

Another serious evil presents itself immediately below the knee, 
in the form of a bony swelling on the inside of a leg. This is 
mostly found in horses with hioh action, and in fast trotting, the 
hoof, or edge of the shoe being struck against the inside of the 
opposite leg. The blow is sometimes so violent, and the pain so 
great, that many horses suddenly drop, to the imminent danger of 
the rider. Great tenderness and some bony enlargement remain, 
and occasionally interfere materially with the action of the joint. 
The speedy cut materially diminishes the value of the horse, for it 
is a habit which is not always to be got rid of, and such a horse can 
never be considered as safe. « 

The tenderness may be abated or removed by means of cooling 
applications, and the swelling reduced by the application of blisters ; 
and if the evil is ever to be prevented, it is by filing away any pro- 
jecting edge of the shoe, or convexity of horn, and especially by the 
use of a shoe the inner side of which is unfettered. 

SPLENT. 

Splents, strictly defined, are ossifications of a peculiar cartilagi- 
nous ligamentous substance, interposed between the larger and 



168 SPLENT. 

smaller bones of the leg; but horsemen agree in calling any little 
bony tumour along the side of the leg a splent. Their causes are 
various; early and hard work, over-weighting of the horse, and 
external violence. 

A splent is the consequence of inflammation of the shank bone, 
caused by concussion or sometimes external injuries. It is the same 
kind of swelling which accompanies inflammation of almost every 
part. The growth of the splent is attended by heat, tenderness and 
pain, and frequently some degree of lameness; these symptoms 
being generally owing to the painful stretching of the periosteum 
or membrane covering the bony substance : but when the inflam- 
mation has passed off", and the periosteum accommodated itself to 
the bony substance beneath, the splent becomes like other bone, in 
a manner destitute of feeling; and they are injurious or not, ac- 
cording to the situation and the state in which they are found. If 
they do not interfere with the action of any joint, or the play of any 
ligament or tendon, and are not in an active or growing state, they 
may be unsightly, but they are little or no kind of detriment to the 
horse. Some knowledge of the anatomy of the leg, or considerable 
observation as to the effect of splents on different parts, is necessary 
in order to decide on the necessity of their removal. 

If they are productive of lameness, or in situations where they 
are likely to produce lameness, the hair should be cut very closely 
around them, and a little mercurial ointment well rubbed in for 
three or four days ; or, what is still better, a compound of iodine with 
mercurial ointment. The mercury will dispose the absorbents to 
be more easily acted upon by the blister ointment, which should be 
actively rubbed in on the fourth or fifth morning, the former appli- 
cation having been cleanly washed off. If one blister makes no 
change in the size of the splent, another should be applied ; but 
beyond this it is not worth while to go; for it will often happen that 
the effect of the blister is not immediate, but begins to become 
apparent a week or a fortnight after the practitioner had been led 
to think that he had been labouring in vain. 

A better and more scienlitic mode of treatment consists in making 
a small fncision through the skin below, and also above the splent, 
then passing up a convex-edged bistoury, and cutting down on the 
splent so as to divide its covering, the periosteum ; then inserting 
a sm*ll seton from the upper to the lower incision, keeping it in 
about ten days or a fortnight. This operation will almost invaria- 
bly succeed in removing the lameness, and preventing its return, 
and in general materially diminishes the enlargement. 

Splents are oftenest seen in young horses, and generally are 
taken up in old horses by a process of absorption which we have 
little power to hasten or retard. A far more serious injury of the 
leg is 



SPRAIN OF THE BACK SINEWS. 169 



SPRAIN OP THE BACK SINEWS. 



This is often occasioned by the horse being over-weighted, and 
then ridden far and fast, especially if his pasterns are long; but it 
may occur from a false step, or from the heels of the shoes being too 
much lowered. The thin-heeled shoes that were once in fashion 
did irreparable mischief in this respect. 

The nature of the injury consists either in the laceration of some 
of the small fibres which connect Ihe back sinews or tendons with 
their sheath, or a bruise, or friction of the tendon against the deli- 
cate and sensible membrane which lines the sheath. Inflammation 
is thus produced, and the natural moisture which lines the sheath, 
and which was intended to prevent injurious friction, is no longer 
secreted, but one of a thicker and different character is thrown out, 
which coagulates, and forms adhesions between the tendon and the 
sheath, and renders the action of the limb both difficult and painful. 

Sprain of the back sinews is detected by swelling and heat at the 
back of the lower part of the leg; puffiness along the course of the 
sinews ; extreme tenderness, so far as the swelling and heat extend; 
and very great lameness. 

The first object is to abate the inflammation ; and this should be 
attempted by bleeding from the plate vein; by means of which 
blood is drained from the inflamed part. 

Next, local applications should be made to the back of the leg in 
the form of fomentations of water sufficiently hot, and frequently 
repeated. At the same time as much strain as possible should be 
taken from the sinew by putting a high calkin on the heel of that 
shoe. 

The horse should have a dose of physic, and be put on mash diet. 
When, in the course of a few days, the leg will bear a little pres- 
sure, a different course should be pursued. The inflammation 
having been abated, the practitioner should think of taking up the 
deposit between the tendon and the sheath, and which, if it did not 
perpetuate lameness, would at least interfere with the motion, and 
limit the action of the limb. 

It is too frequently the absurd practice of the farrier to attempt 
this by means of hot oils or blisters, immediately after the accident, 
and before the inflammation is subdued. By doing this he increases 
the inflammation, and aggravates the evil, and often renders a 
thorough cure impossible. 

The first application, with a view to promote the absorption of the 
matter thrown out, should be in the form of pressure, cautiously 
applied at the beginning, and only as the animal can bear it, but 
gradually tightened every day — the bandage welted with the discu- 
tient lotion (Recipe No. 65, p. 160), in order that the leg may be 
kept cool, and thus not only the inflammation lessened, but the tone 
and strength of the parts in some degree restored. 



170 WINDGALLS. 

In slight cases, when the tenderness, heat, and swelling, and 
lameness have all subsided, the horse may go to work, if he does 
not go too far or too fast: but if the sprain has been severe, con- 
siderable enlargement will remain after the absolute lameness is 
gone off! This is the remainder of the coasfulated fluid thrown out 
under inflammation, and it will materially interfere with the free 
and safe action of the limb; therefjre, and especially where quick 
work is required, it will be expedient to blister the leg, and turn 
the horse out for a couple of months. 

In very bad cases it may be necessary to fire the leg. If this 
should seem to be required it should be done efi'ectually, that is, 
until the fired lines present a deep brown colour, showing that the 
iron has been carried through the cuticle and into the cutis, thus 
alone will all the purposes of firing be obtained, not merely by 
abating deep-seated inflammation, but by its acting as a permanent 
bandage, and thus giving strength to the part; and also, by its con- 
stant presure, rousing the absorbents to take up the deposited 
matter. After firing, the horse should be turned out for two or three 
months; indeed, it would be worse than useless to attempt this 
severe operation without the certainty of two or three months being 
allowed for the gradual abatement of the external inflammation, and 
the absorption of the internal deposit. 

WINDGALLS. 

The sheath of the flexor tendon at the fetlock is confined above 
by ligamentous substance, which sometimes becomes stretched, and 
even partially ruptured, by the pressure of an increased quantity of 
synovial fluid. This constitutes windgalls, which rarely occasion 
lameness unless they are very large and appear suddenly, being 
then evidently produced by violent action, and attended with in- 
flammation. They are, however, always blemishes. A distension 
of the capsular ligament of the fetlock joint itself will also produce 
windgalls, situated more forward than the others. 

The mode of treatment is the same as in sprain of the back 
sinews. When there is much heat about the part, fomentations 
will be useful; but the windgall will sooner bear pressure than the 
sprained sinew will, and a flannel roller should be applied, wetted 
with the same cooUng astringent lotion (Recipe No. 65, p. 160). 

If the windgall will not yield to this, the common liquid blister 
(Recipe No. 31, p. 83) should be lowered with four times its quan- 
tity of spermaceti oil, and some of it daily well rubbed in over the 
enlarged bags. This, which is called sweating down the windgal 
keeps a constant stimulus upon the part, not sufficient to blister or 
to cause lameness, but enough to rouse the absorbents to more 
powerful action : the embrocation must be omitted for three or four 
days. 

If the horse can be spared, a regular blister (Recipe No. 27, p. 



SPRAIN OF THE SUSPENSORY LIGAMENTS. 171 

80) will be far more certain and effectual in its operation ; and, 
should even that fail, firing- may be resorted to, still in longitudinal 
lines, sufficiently deep to rouse the absorbents to action, but never 
cutting into and through the windgall. 

SPRAIN OF THE FETLOCK JOINT. 

This is of almost as frequent occurrence as sprain of the hack 
sineivs, and it is more serious, for there is more pain during the 
action of the joint : the inflammation is longer kept up, and the 
heads of the bones of the joints are apt to become enlarged, con- 
stantly interfering with the use of the joint, and the inflammation 
liable to be renewed from the slightest cause. It may be distin- 
guished from sprain of the bock sinews by the heat and tenderness 
and enlargement being clearly around the joint, and in a manner 
confined to it. 

The mode of treatment is still the same. Fomentations will be 
as effectual as in strains higher up, and they must in their turn give 
way to pressure and cold astringent lotions. Firing will sometimes 
be necessary, but the horse can seldom be safely returned to his 
work without an active blister. 

RUPTURE AND SPRAIN OP THE SUSPENSORY LIGAMENTS- 

At the back of the fetlock, and forming its roundness or projec- 
tion behind, are two little irregularly shaped, but somewhat circular 
bones, attached to the joint, yet forminir no part of it; they are 
called the sesamoid bones. A ligament, descending from the upper 
part of the back of the leg, and pursuing its course by the side of, 
and more forward than, the back sinews, is attached to the upper 
and back part of these bones, and is also continued on, and inserted 
into, the pastern bone below. It is called the suspensory ligament, 
because the weight of the body is, when the foot is first put to the 
ground, in a great measure suspended by it, and much concussion 
between the bones of the joints is prevented. 

It must have been observed how the pasterns and the fetlock 
yield, and are brought almost to the ground in the rapid action of 
the horse, and particularly if he has long pasterns. This ligament, 
very highly elastic, is yielding to the weight of the horse, and ex- 
tending itself, and the sesamoid bones are turning round in their 
places to permit this elongation. The foot being again lifted, and 
the weight removed, the ligament contracts tofts natural length, 
and the sesamoids turn back and occupy their former places; and 
it is in this gradual lengthening and contracting of the elastic sus- 
pensory ligament, and the rotation of the sesamoid bones, that the 
easy and pleasant action of the horse with oblique pasterns consists. 
In the horse with short and upright pasterns the weight and con- 
cussion are thrown more on the bones of the joint; the action is 
jolting, and hence sprain and enlargement of the fetlock joint. 



172 CUTTING. 

These ligaments, as it may be easily imagined, are subject to 
occasional and serious injury. They are sometimes ruptured, and 
the horse is said to break down* The fetlock, no longer supported 
by the suspensory ligament, almost touches the ground, and the 
lameness is dreadful. This lowering of the fetlock will at all times 
distinguish rupture of the ligament from sprain of the back sinew. 
The part injured, in this accident, is generally that below the fet- 
lock joint: not always the suspensory li<2:ament, but sometimes the 
oLher ligaments which brace the sesamoid bones to the pasterns. 

This is a serious, and, generally speaking, an irreparable injury, 
though fortunately it is a rare one, for it will be almost impossible 
to keep the divided edges of the ligament sufficiently long in con- 
tact for reunion to take place. A shoe with a very high calkin 
must be put on; the leg must be well bandaged, and perfect quiet 
must be enjoined. Inflammation may be kept under by the appli- 
cation of cold to the part, but no stimulating application must be 
used until all inflammation is removed, when the leg should be 
fired. 

A much more frequent injury than that just described, though 
fortunately one much less severe, is a strain and enlargement of 
the suspensory ligament, sometimes on one, but generally on both 
sides. Tiie treatment should be similar to that before advised ; that 
is, first to remove the inflammation, and then to blister or fire the 
enlargement. 

CUTTING. 

The inside of the fetlock is often bruised and cut by the opposite 
foot. This is particularly the case in young horses, before the joints 
attain their natural strength, and their straight and level action ; for 
the same reason horses when they are tired frequently cut, for the 
leg can no longer preserve its perpendicular position and motion. 

There are few things more difficult to cure than cutting: the 
inner heel has been raised or lowered, and the outer one raised or 
lowered also, and in both cases occasionally with good eflTect ; but, 
oflener, the horse continues to cut on whichever side the unequal 
bearing is thrown. That which has oftenest succeeded, and which 
is most consistent with common sense, is the level paring of the 
foot, and the level surface and bearing of the shoe; at the same 
time an additional nail being put on the outer side, and only two 
nails on the inner^jpide of the shoe, and these near to the toe. This 
unfettered way of shoeing, while it retains perfect security to the 
shoe, permits the foot to expand and contract naturally when the 
horse is in action, and the straightforward and safe motion of the 
foot is then most likely to be preserved. At the same time any 
projecting edge of the shoe beyond the crust should be carefully 

* This term is also applied by racing men to a severe sprain of the 
back sinews. 



RING-BONE. 173 

filed down; and the inside quarters, and particularly if there is any 
appearance of bulging, should be rasped, for the horse as often 
bruises the fetlock with the side of the opposite hoof, as he cuts it 
with the edge of the shoe. 

SPRAIN OF THE PASTERN JOINT. 

This joint suffers almost as frequently as the fetlock. The seat 
of the injury may be detected, as in the other case, by the heat, 
swelling" and tenderness : the same course of treatment must be 
pursued. 

SPRAIN OP THE COFFIN JOINT. 

This may be recognised by heat and tenderness along the coro- 
net, and particularly in the front of the foot. The treatment is the 
same; but the cooling discutient applications are not always effec- 
tual, because this joint is a little way within the foot, and in a 
manner out of their reach. Fomentations will be of comparatively 
little use; but the foot may with advantage be surrounded with a 
poultice, or a strip of cloth may be tied round the coronet, and kept 
constantly wet with cold water, or the lotion (Recipe No. 66, p. 
160). It will seldom be safe to permit the horse to return to his 
work until he has been actively blistered round the coronet, or, in 
very bad cases, fired ; for thus alone can the inflammation be re- 
moved from so deeply-seated a part. 

RING-BONE. 

From the great action of the pastern joints, and the injuries to 
which the ligaments which are attached to those bones are exposed, 
inflammation there is oftener accompanied by the deposition of bony 
matter than in any other part. Ring-bone, so called because it 
sometimes extends round the upper part of the foot like a ring, is 
the frequent consequence of sprain in the pastern and coffin joints. 
Sometimes it begins as high up as the middle of the larger pastern 
bone ; oftener about the pastern joint, and sometimes from the lower 
and smaller pastern bone. It is the consequence of inflammation 
of the ligaments ; bone being deposited upon or about them, and 
sometimes parts of them being changed to bone. The lateral or 
side ligaments are those that are oftenest or soonest affected, and 
ring-bone is then discovered in its early state by a rounded hard 
projection on each side immediately above the coronet. 

Ring-bone is always accompanied by lameness at the commence- 
ment; but the continuance and extent of the after lameness depend 
on the degree in which the bony tumour interferes with the action 
of either of the joints. In some cases it goes off altogether' parti- 
cularly in the hind feet, where the concussion is not so great, and 
the inflammation has not been so intense; but in the fore feet, sup- 

12 



174 FRACTURES. 

porting more of the weight of the body and liable to severer injury, 
the bony deposit is usually greater, and involves one or both of the 
pastern joints, and the cartilages of the feet. Lameness, and often 
of an incurable nature, is then the result; and it not unfrequently 
happens that the pastern or coffin joint, being surrounded by un- 
yielding bone, is lost. 

It is of little use to meddle with ring-bone unless we begin at its 
commencement, and then it should be attacked in good earnest. 
Local bleeding, poultices, and fomentations should first be employed, 
and, the inflammation being removed, the part should be blistered, 
and in the majority of cases the cautery is to be preferred to the 
blister. Both, however, will often fail ; tor the incessant action and 
labour of the parts, and the pressure on them, render it very diffi- 
cult to arrest the progress of the inflammation. In a confirmed 
case of ring-bone, and especially where the joint is anchylosed, it 
would be the height of cruelty to subject the poor animal to the 
useless torture of the iron. 

GROGGINESS* — KNUCKLING, ETC. 

This is a frequent tremulous motion of the whole leg, with a 
bowing of the knee, and some degree of knuckling of the fetlock; 
while on the slightest tap behind the knee, the joint yields and 
bendvS. There is an evident loss of power and energy in the limb; 
and though in some measure a natural defect and the effect of high 
breeding, it is often a proof also that the horse has been hardly worked, 
and injured by that work, and probably can endure comparatively 
iitile more extra-exertion. 

There is a relaxation of the extensor ligaments and sinews of the 
joints, or disease within the joints, preventing the animal from giving 
them that fixed position which he otherwise would do. There is 
little remedy for it but blistering, and the comparative rest which 
the horse enjoys when turned out, and the salutary and bracing, 
and not sufficiently appreciated influence of cool air on weakness 
of the legs and feet. 

FRACTURES. 

A horse is often condemned without cause, on account of fracture 
of the bones of the fore-legs. Either the practitioner dislikes 
the trouble of the case, or the proprietor is loth to make the proper 
remuneration. The only circumstances that will justify the aban- 
donment of a horse with fractured leg are when it is a compound 
fracture, the integument and muscular parts being lacerated as 
well as the bone broken, or otherwise the bones so displaced as 

* The term grogginess is usually applied by horsemen to chronic foot 
lameness. 



INJURIES AND LAMENESS. 175 

to render it irnpo?sible to replace them in their proper position ; then, 
indeed, the case is hopeless. 

The cure of fracture of the pastern, or the shank bone, may be 
undertaken with fair prospect of success. All that is to be done 
is to cut the hair closely from the part ; to bring — and as gently as 
may be — the divided edges of the bones in apposition ; to retain them 
there by a pitch plaster ; and then to bind on splints, which shall 
reach a considerable way above and below the injured part. 

This should be done in the box in which it is intended that the 
horse should remain. He should then be bled, and a dose of physic 
given, and left as much as possible to himself He will take care 
of his broken leg ; he will not press upon it for many a day ; and 
not at all, until he can do so without much pain ; and in many 
more cases than some have imagined, the fractured bone will unite, 
and the horse will do well. 

A sling should rarely be used. The sad excoriations and other 
inconveniences occasioned by the long use of the sling have, more 
than any thing else, brought the treatment of fractures into dis- 
repute. 

Fractures of the hind extremities are more serious affairs, and 
should be undertaken with still greater caution. 



CHAPTER XXX. 

INJURIES AND LAMENESSES OF THE HIND EXTREMITIES. — LOWER 
FRACTURE OF THE HAUNCH. 

The point of the hip, or haunch, is exposed to considerable dan- 
ger from accident or brutal force. Either in consequence of falling, 
or being run violently against, or receiving a heavy blow, the tube- 
rosities of the haunch may be broken off. There is an immense 
mass of powerful muscle here; so that it would be utterly impossi- 
ble by any mechanical force to bring the disunited pieces of bone 
accurately together again; yet nature will do much towards it : 
for if, after the inflammation has a little abated, a thick charge is 
put over the loins, the tuberosity will some months afterwards be 
found connected with the part where it was torn, either by inter- 
posed callus, or even bony formation. There will always, however, 
be some difference in the appearance of the two hips, and occa- 
sionally some lameness; but the horse will perform slow work- with 
tolerable ease. 



176 STIFLE LAMENE39. 



SPRAIN OF THE ROUND BONE. 



One would think that it was impossible that the ligaments of the 
joint connecting the thigh bone with the haunch could be subject 
to sprain ; the enormous mass of muscle by which it is surrounded 
seems to bid defiance to any power of extension or injury. Dislo- 
cation, or even strain of this joint, does not occur one-tenth part so 
often as the groom imagines. Lameness from sprain of the round 
bone is sometimes characterized by the horse dragging his toe 
behind him, and at other times by a very peculiar rotatory, indeci- 
sive motion of the limb. The best proof, however, of the lameness 
being seated here is the pain evinced by the animal when this joint 
is firmly pressed upon. There is seldom much enlargement, and 
the injured part is too deep for the heat to be always felt. 

If fomentations are applied at all in the treatment of this lame- 
ness they should be as hot as the hand of the operator will bear, 
and frequently repeated ; but it will generally be the best practice 
to have immediate recourse to a blister. Some apply the cautery 
to the joint. Rest is absolutely necessary, and should the lameness 
long continue, a charge should be placed on the part, and the horse 
turned out to grass. 

STIFLE LAMENESS. 

There is much oftener lameness in the stifle, and there are few 
places where the actual cause of lameness is so deceptive, or so 
little understood. There is seldom sprain of the joint ; but frequently 
dislocation of the patella or knee-cap. The horse is found standing 
with his hind leg thrust backwards as far as possible, resting upon 
the fetlock, the pastern perfectly bent, and the whole limb fixed ; 
the animal is evidently in great pain, perspiring profusely, and 
heaving sadly at the flanks. 

The case, however, is easily treated. Some persons proceed in 
a very summary way : they give the horse a good lash or two with 
a whip, and by his violent effort to get away from the punishment, 
the limb is flexed, and the knee-pan returns to its place. This, 
probably, would succeed in many^ases; but there is some danger 
attending so rude an operation, for the ligaments of the patella may 
be sprained, or even ruptured, in the sudden and violent action of 
the limb. 

The dislocation can be reduced without much trouble, or any 
danger. It generally takes place inwardly. An assistant should 
lift the lame leg, and carry it forward and upward, while the sur- 
geon presses upon the edge of the patella, either outwardly or 
inwardly, according to the nature of the dislocation, and the bone 
will be returned to its natural situation with a facility that would 
scarcely be expected. If some hours have passed, however, be- 



THOROUGH-PIN — CAPPED HOCK. 177 

tween the dislocation and its attempted removal, the ligaments 
will have been so much extended and weakened, that the bone 
sometimes slips out again, as soon as the limb is quitted : it will 
always, therefore, be prudent to bathe the joint with cold water ; or 
to blister, if the horse has previously been subject to this disloca- 
tion. Should not the ligaments even then have regained sufficient 
strength, the cautery will probably be needed. Much inflammation, 
and enlargement of the joint, and even fracture of the patella, arise 
from contusions received in hunting, or when a horse is running 
away : rest, fomentation, and, if unavoidable, blistering, are the 
proper remedies. 

The muscles of the thigh, generally, and particularly of the inside 
of it, and near the stifle, have sometimes been severely sprained in 
hunting, when the country is deep and the fences high. Rest and 
fomentation, with mild physic, are the remedies here. 

THOROUGH-PIN. 

Approaching the hock, we sometimes find a soft tumour, occupy- 
ing the space between the bone and the tendon that passes over the 
point of the hock. It projects on both sides, and is therefore called 
a thorough-pin. Sometimes this tumour is situated above the 
point of the hock, and sometimes below. In the latter situation it 
is connected with the hock joint itself. It is not necessarily a cause 
of lameness ; it comparatively seldom is so, unless, by its bulk, or by 
its being nearer the tendon than the bone, it interferes with the 
action of the joint. 

If the tumour is small, and there is no lameness, it is better to let 
it alone; but if it is evidently increasing, or there is the slightest 
lameness, an attempt may be made to sweat it down, as recom- 
mended in page 170, or the blister ointment (Recipe No. 27, p. 80) 
may be at once applied. A still better treatment is the frequent 
application of the following ointment: — 

RECIPE (No. 68). 

Take — Biniodide of mercury, one part; 
Lard, or palm-oil, seven parts : 
Rub together in a mortar. 
About the size of a hazel-nut to be rubbed on the part at a time, and 
repeated daily until a considerable scurf is produced. 

CAPPED HOCK. 

At the point of the hock a tumour occasionally appears, at first 
soft, and containing some fluid. It is usually the consequence of 
violence; and it is most frequently produced by the injury which 
the animal inflicts on the hock in the act of kicking. It is rarely 



178 BONE-SPAVIN. 

accompanied by lameness, and when there has been impeded action 
of the joint, it has oflener proceeded from injury inflicted on the 
hock generally, than from the simple tumour on the point of it. It 
should, however, be removed ; for it is apt to increase with a slight 
repetition of the first exciting cause, and, if it is suffered to become 
hard and callous, it is sometimes exceedingly obstinate. 

The inflammation should be reduced by cold applications, and the 1 
ointment advised in the last article applied. If this should fail, a 
selon should be passed through the tumour. 

BOG-SPAVIN 

Consists of a distension of the capsular ligament of the upper joint 
of the hock with synovia: it therefore resembles thorough-pin and 
windgalls, and should be treated in a similar manner. When it 
appears suddenly, and is considerable, it is attended with lameness 
from inflammation of the joint, but otherwise it is generally free 
from both lameness and inflammation. 

The old-fashioned method of passing a ligature round the vein, 
above and below the varicose enlargement, and cutting out the 
interposed portion, is now deservedly abandoned by every judicious 
practitioner. ' I 

BONE-SPAVIN. 

From a consideration of the anatomy of the hock, it will be evi- 
dent that the weight of the horse is not equally borne by the two 
small bones at the back of the larger and principal one of the hind 
leg. The inner bone supports considerably more than its share of 
the burden. It has been shown that this was the case in the fore 
leg, and that in consequence of it the horse was subject to splent: 
the substance which united the two bones became inflamed, and 
was changed into bony matter, and this process of ossification spread 
beyond the original seat of inflanmiation, and displayed itself in the 
form of bony tumours, called splents. In the same manner the 
substance between the great bone of the hind leg, and the smaller 
one on the inner side, becomes inflamed from the disproportionate 
weight that is thrown upon it, and the concussion to which it is 
exposed, and it becomes ossified, and the process of ossification 
spreads, and there results the bony tumour on the inside of the 
hock, which is denominated spavin. 

This is always a source of pain and lameness at its first formation ; 
but the continuance of the lameness depends on the progress of this 
bony growth, and its interfering with the action of the joint. If it is 
found principally below, and does not spread over the small bones 
of the joint and limit their motion, the bony tumour may acquire a 
very large size, and not produce much lameness. The continuance 
of this exemption from lameness, however, will be very uncertain; 



BONE-SPAVIN. 179 

for no one can tell, when this habit of throwing out bony matter in 
a part is once established, what direction it will take, or what mis- 
chief it will effect. 

The treatment of spavin must be energetic. An active blister 
should at once be applied, and repeated again and again, and in 
obstinate cases of lameness, the cautery must be resorted to, or a 
seton inserted so as to extend over the surface of the spavin. 

A singular, and yet sometimes an effectual way of relieving, and 
sometimes removing, the lameness of spavin, is putting the horse to 
the plough. The slow action of the limb in ploughing can be borne 
without very great pain, and at length the ossification ceasing to 
extend, the parts are used without pain, 

The farrier once used to have recourse to the chisel and mallet 
in order to remove this and some other bony productions; the spavin 
was sometimes punctured with the awl, or perforated with the gim- 
let; but this, in the majority of cases, only added to the inflamma- 
tion, and increased the evil ; for it aggravated the inflammation in 
the part which was previously threatening the loss of the limb. 

In some cases the severest treatment will not remove the lame- 
ness of spavin, and in others there will be lameness clearly referri- 
ble, by the action of the horse, to the hock, but unaccompanied by 
any external bony enlargement. The cause of this was long un- 
suspected : at length it was recollected that the joint consisted of 
several bones, having some slight motion upon one another, and 
each invested by its own synovial membrane, so as to form a sepa- 
rate perfect joint ; and it began to be suspected that the concussion 
and violent action, which excited inflammation and ossification 
between the larger and smaller metatarsal bones, might produce 
injurious effect on some of these little, but complicated joints. The 
examination of some horses after death, tliat had long laboured under 
obscure lameness in the hind leg, set the matter in its proper light; 
for there was found deep, in the internal part of the hock, inflam- 
mation of the membranes of these little joints, going on to caries of 
the bones, without one external appearance to indicate such an 
affection. In other cases equally obscure, the same diseased appear- 
ance has been found in the upper joint of the hock, in which the 
principal motion takes place. 

This internal mischief was sometimes unconnected with exter- 
nal bony enlargement ; but much oftener accompanied it. The 
mischief in the first case commenced within; in the latter it was 
consequent on the spread of the inflammation, and the tendency to 
the production of bone, which had evinced itself without. This 
satisfactorily accounts for the difficulty of removing spavin-lameness 
in some cases, and aflbrds a new and satisfactory explanation of 
many a lameness behind, that had been hitherto inexplicable. 

This also accounts for the spavined horse occasionally becoming 
in process of time sound, although the enlargement at the spavin 
place remains. The inflamed and pamful membrane becomes ossi- 



180 CURB. 

fied, the bones are united together, and although the joint betrays 
a greater or less degree of stiffness, the agony occasioned by the 
rubbing of the bones upon each other has ceased, and the lameness 
has ceased with this. 

Experienced horsemen are now accustomed to refer to the hock 
nearly every lameness of the hind leg for which they cannot find 
sufficient explanation elsewhere. 

ENLARGED HOCK. 

Either from this inflammation among the small bones of the hock, 
or from external violence, the whole of the joint begins sometimes 
to enlarge, accompanied by much heat and Ijimeness : by the appli- 
cation, however, of proper means, the heat and lameness are re- 
moved ; but the enlargement of the hock is permanent. Such a 
horse should be regarded with considerable suspicion. He may be 
capable of common work; but he will often fail if much extra-exer- 
tion is required from him, or often repeated. Firing promises to be 
efficacious here, for a portion, at least, of the mischief is deeply 
seated. 

CURB. 

This is inflammation of the ligaments or sinews at the back of 
the hock, and particularly of the ring-like ligament which binds 
down the tendon of the leg. It is most frequent in young horses, 
whose joints have not attained their full strength. A young horse 
may go out of the yard perfectly sound ; he treads awry, or he treads 
on some inequality of ground, or he makes some sudden exertion, 
and he immediately becomes decidedly lame in one of the hind 
legs; and, on being closely examined, there is found to be an en- 
largement on the hinder part of the hock, three or four inches 
below the point of it. 

The first object to be effected is to remove the inflammation, and 
as the injured part is so nearly superficial, there will not be much 
difficulty in that. The hock should be bathed with the lotion 
(Recipe No. 65, p. 160), or a roller should be passed round the part, 
and kept constantly wetted with the lotion ; at the same time, if the 
lameness is considerable, a dose of physic should be given, and 
absolute quietness enjoined ; and a high heel or patten shoe should 
be placed on the foot so as to throw the weight off the affected part. 

In three or four days the heat will probably have subsided, and 
the lameness almost disappeared; but there will remain a slight 
enlargement of the part. Stimulating applications should now be 
resorted to, not only to cause the absorbents to take away this 
deposit, but also to strengthen the ligament thus weakened by dis- 
tension and inflammation. The liquid sweating blister (Recipe No. 
30, p. 82), and lowered, as recommended in the same page, will 



SWELLED LEGS. 181 

generally effect both purposes; but should the slightest lameness be 
observed, a direct blister (Recipe No. 27, p. 80) should be rubbed 
in. In some cases, neither the enlargement nor the lameness will 
perfectly subside without the use of the cautery. It should also be 
remembered, that although the enlargement of curb will occasion- 
ally remain for several months, in despite of the blister, it in a great 
measure disappears in process of time. Curb is apt to return if the 
horse is sent to work too soon; and it is now a well-established fact, 
that the predisposition to throw them out is hereditary. 

SWELLED LEGS. 

This is a very frequent and most troublesome complaint. The 
cause is often exxeedingly difficult to be detected, and when disco- 
vered, is often so complicated, and the disease becomes so inveterate, 
that the practitioner has little prospect of completely eradicating it. 

The fore-legs occasionally take on a disposition to enlarge; but it 
is oftener, and running to a greater extent, found in the hinder 
ones. A horse is sometimes left in perfect health at night, and is 
found, on the next morning, with one or both hind legs enormously 
enlarged. The skin is tense and glistening; it is hot and exceed- 
ingly tender; the horse cannot bear to have it touched ; he catches 
up his leg suddenly; the limb moves as if the lower part of it had 
no joint ; and, in the convulsive effort to get it out of reach, the 
animal not unfrequently loses his balance, and falls, or threatens to 
fall, on the examiner. 

This complaint, which is known by the name of weed in many 
parts of the country, is evidently sudden and very intense inflamma- 
tion of the absorbents of the leg. A considerable degree of general 
fever often speedily follows; the pulse quickens; the mouth is hot; 
and the horse is entirely off his feed. Young horses are peculiarly 
subject to this, especially if, after being taken from grass, they are 
too highly fed, and suffered to stand idle in the stable. Sometimes 
in older horses, as well as in the younger ones, it is the sudden 
shifting of inflammation from some other part, as the lungs or the 
intestines. 

This apparently formidable species of swelled leg readily yields 
to proper medical treatment. The leg should be frequently fomented 
with warm water; from four to six quarts of blood should be taken 
away, and a good dose of physic administered, vs'hich should be 
followed by diuretic medicine. The swelling, however, having 
subsided, and the tenderness having gone off, the legs should be 
well rubbed, and then lightly bandaged ; gentle exercise should be 
used and alterative medicine administered; for the over-distended 
vessels must necessarily be weakened, and the disease is apt to 
return. 

If an old horse, or a young one that has been over-worked, is 
suffered to stand a day or two in the stable, his legs often fill, but 



182 GREASE. 

without pain or heat. The legs of some horses regularly swell 
every night. This is connected with debility, either general or of 
the part. The case must be considered very attentively before any 
measures are adopted. The horse may be too highly kept, but his 
leg's are suffering from occasional over-work : thgn mild physic, 
mild diuretics, regular exercise, hand-rubbing, and bandages around 
the leg, will be the proper means to be adopted ; decreasing a little 
the quantity of food, and giving mashes and green meat, if the 
season will allow it. The habitual use of the bandage is an excel- 
lent thing in these cases, and has often gradually strengthened the 
vessels of the part, and rendered the leg as fine as ever. 

Frequently an enlargement of the leg is connected with general 
debility. The horse has been cruelly over-worked, — or he is reco- 
vering from serious illness, — or he has been half-starved, and he is 
generally weak, and these weaker and injured parts yield. A very 
mild dose of physic will sometimes be indicated even here, and 
especially if there is any foulness about the horse. A daily mash 
should be given ; a fair allowance of corn ; green meat if it can be 
procured ; gentle and regular exercise should be used ; and small 
closes of cantharides, varying from three to five or six grains, and a 
few tonic diuretic balls (Recipe No. 42, p. 110). Every thing 
should be done to increase the strength of the system generally, 
and the vessels of the extremities will soon regain their proper tone. 

This course of treatment will be particularly proper if the legs 
swell at the spring and fall of the year. The horse is then shedding 
his coat, a process which is always attended by some debility. 
The tonic diuretic balls will here be exceedingly useful. 

In every case, however, of swelled legs, a great deal more 
depends upon management than on medicine; and there is nothing 
so likely to be injurious as the frequent use of diuretics, of which 
many grooms are so fond. They are fruitful sources of debility (the 
worst cause of swelled legs): they first weaken the urinary organs, 
and loss of tone in the system generally too soon succeeds. 

Connected occasionally with swelled legs, and producing that de- 
bility of the parts which takes from the vessels the power of con- 
tracting on their contents, is 

GREASE. 

This is essentially inflammation of the skin of the heel. It may 
be traced to various causes. One of the most frequent is the wash- 
ing of the heels when the horse comes in from work. He is hot all 
over, and hot in the heels as much as any where else; but the 
harness is scarcely taken off", before cold water is sluiced plentifully 
over them, under the notion of clearing away all the dust that hangs 
about them. That I could excuse, if they were rubbed thorouglily 
dry afterwards; but the groom has too much to do, or is too idle for 
this : he, perhaps, sponges off a portion of the wet, but he leaves a 



GREASE. 183 

great deal more, and the cold process of evaporation is immediately 
established. There is nothing- so debilitating as this, or so destruc- 
tive of the very life of a part; and it is the prevailing cause of 
grease : when the tone of any portion of the trame, or any set of 
vessels is impaired, they are peculiarly subject to inflammation. It 
is the character of inflammation to attack the weakest part. 

This washing of the heels should be strictly forbidden in every 
well-regulated stable. After the horse has stood a quarter of an 
hour, during which time the groom may be employed about the 
harness, or some of the arrangements of the stable, a great deal of 
the dirt will be dried upon the leg, and may be easily brushed ofl^ 
Ten minutes after that, the rest may be brushed away, and a little 
hand-rubbing will restore the part to its natural glow. 

Then, the vessels of the heel being weakened and disposed to 
inflammation by this absurd system of washing, let it be supposed 
that the part is exposed to some of the common excitincj causes of 
inflammation ; the horse stands in a very hot stable, with a draught 
of cold air continually blowing upon his heels; he remains day after 
day in the stable unexercised, until he has swelled legs : there is 
no system of cleanliness going forward in the stable, but the heels, 
already irritated, are exposed to the acrimonious influence of the 
dung, and urine, and filth, of various kinds; and, all this while, the 
horse has been too grossly fed and has a superabundance of hu- 
mours about him, ready to settle in the weakest part. Added to all 
this, and even under careful management, the heel is, and must be, 
a weak part: it is farthest from the centre of circulation ; the fluids 
have up-hill work, contrary to the force of gravity, in order to 
return from the heels. If all these things are taken into conside- 
ration, the prevalence of grease needs not to be wondered at. It 
is, however, a plain and palpable proof of some mismanagement, let 
it occur when or where it will. It assumes difi^erent forms in its 
difl^erent stages; but at first it is pure inflammation of the skin of 
the heel. The heel is red, tender, dry, scurfy. The natural 
suppling secretion, from a part that has so much action, is sus- 
pended. 

If warning is taken in time, the complaint is easily arrested. No 
effort must be made forcibly to separate the scurf from the skin 
beneath. There must be no excoriation, or soreness, if it can pos- 
sibly be avoided. A good thick lather of soft soap and water should 
be rubbed gently into the heel, and a considerable part of the scurf 
will be readily removed. 

The following ointment should then be rubbed on the heel morn- 
ing and night. 

RECIPE (No. 69). 
Ointment for Scurfy Heels. 

Take — Extract of poulard, l.alf a drachm ; 
Lard, an ounce : 
Rub these well together until they are thoroughly incorporated. 



184 GREASE. 

This will supple and detach the remaining part of the scurf, and 
at the same time soothe the inflammation of the skin. A mash 
should be given every night; a diuretic ball twice in the week; 
green meat should be allowed, and every exciting cause of grease 
removed. 

Possibly the inflammation may have proceeded somewhat farther, 
or the scurf may have been suffered to remain too long: it becomes 
hard and brittle, and cracks soon extend through it across the heel. 
This is the second stage of grease — " cracked heels.'''' 

Here no certain plan can be laid down, but the practitioner 
must be guided by the depth of the cracks, and the general inflam- 
mation of tliie heel. The first thing, however, to be done, is to get 
rid of the scurf by means of the soap and water, or the ointment for 
scurfy heels (Recipe No. 69, in the preceding page). If the cracks 
are superficial, an attempt should be made to dry them up, and a 
lotion will be most conveniently employed for this purpose. That 
which will oftenest succeed is a very weak solution of alum. The 
alum lotion (Recipe No. 20, p. 68) may be lowered with four times 
its quantity of water. 

If the crack is not evidently closing in the course of a very few 
days, the mild caustic wash for wounds (Recipe No. 63, p. 159), 
likewise lowered with four times the quantity of water, should be 
tried ; and should the case still be obstinate, the following lotion 
must be substituted. 

RECIPE (No. 70). 

Strong Wash for Grease. 

Take — Blue vitriol, a quarter of an ounce; 

Alum, three drachms; and dissolve them in a pint 
of water. 

It will occasionally happen, that either there was at first so much 
inflammation, or it is produced by the slightest stimulating appli- 
cation, that it will be necessary to allay the inflammation before the 
cracks will heal. Nothing is comparable to the common linseed 
poultice for this purpose, unless it be one made of carrots, boiled 
until they are very soft and then mashed. There is something in 
the juice of the carrot which is peculiarly beneficial in all greasy 
afi^ections. 

If the cracks discharge a thin sanious fluid having an unpleasant 
and fetid smell, a little of the solution of the chloride of lime (Re- 
cipe No. 18, p. 68) should be added to the poultice. 

The inflammation having been somewhat subdued, and the cracks 
beginning to look healthy, the practitioner should return to the 
lotions, beginning again with the alum wash, which should be 
applied morning and night; or if this should appear to be a little 
too stimulating, he may use the following ointment, which, on 



GREASE. 185 

account of its excellent quality, when an ointment is admissible in 
the horse, I may properly designate— 



RECIPE (No. 71). 
A Healing Ointment. 

Take — Of lard or palm-oil, four pounds ; 

Resin, one pound ; melt them together, and when they begin 

to cool and to thicken, add 
Calamine powder, well rubbed down, one pound. 

A mild dose of physic will be useful in this stage of the complaint, 
or a diuretic ball every alternate night. 

If much swelling should remain around the pastern and fetlock, 
or extend up the leg, a bandage, not too tightly applied, will be 
serviceable. The alum or the blue vitriol lotion, changing them as 
either may seem to lose its effect, should also be daily rubbed into 
the swelled part, and particularly if there is any scurfiness, or cracks 
are beginning again to appear. This, of all the stages of grease, is 
that in which a run at spring grass would be beneficial. 

There must be neglect on the part of the veterinary surgeon or 
the proprietor of the horse, or both of them, if grease proceeds 
farther than this; and yet there are too many cases in which the 
heels assume a dreadful appearance. The cracks disappear, or 
rather, while they seem to fill up, the disease extends, and one con- 
tinuous oozing and soreness spreads over the pasterns and fetlock. 
Fungous granulations spring from different points: they increase, 
they unite, and there is an irregular protruding surface, sore, and 
bleeding at the slightest touch. Some parts hardening, they are 
covered with scabs, or sometimes with a spurious kind of horn. 
The irregular surface by degrees assumes the form of knobs, run- 
ning in lines, and which often bear no indistinct resemblance to a 
bunch of grapes ; hence they are technically called grapes. A 
strangely mingled purulent, mucous, sanious discharge runs from 
the greater part of the surface. 

Severe measures alone will be of avail here, and it is, generally, 
the best practice to proceed to the cautery at once. The scabs and 
the spurious horn should be removed with a knife, and then a flat 
heated iron run rapidly over the whole surface. A rowel should be 
inserted on the inner side of the thigh, and a dose of physic given, 
after which a course of the tonic diuretic balls (Recipe No. 42, p. 
] 10) should be commenced. 

The eschars produced by the cautery beginning to come off, the 
part should be daily washed with the following lotion : — 



186 STRUCTURE OF THE FOOT. 

RECIPE (No. 72). 

Lotion for confirmed Grease. 

Take — Corrosive sublimate, one drachm; 

Rectified spirit, half an ounce ; rub them well together, until 

the mercury is dissolved, and then gradually add 
Lime water, two ounces. 

Few lotions have a better effect than this; but should it seenfi, 
after a while, to lose its effect, let the following liniment be tried : — 

RECIPE (No. 73). 

Liniment for Grease. 

Take — Powdered verdigris, and sugar of lead, a quarter of an ounce 
of each ; 
Honey, one ounce: 
Rub them together, and form a liniment. 

A horse, however, that has once had an attack of grease like this 
will be very subject to a relapse; great care should, therefore, be 
taken not to expose him to any of the predisposing causes of grease. 
No water should be suffered to go near his heels; he should be 
well but not over fed ; a mash should be occasionally given ; also 
green meat, and particularly carrots, mild physic, and tonic diure- 
tics ; and if it is practicable, a few weeks' run in a salt marsh should 
be allowed. 



CHAPTER XXXL 

THE STRUCTURE AND DISEASES OF THE FOOT. 

The diseases of the foot are those of most common occurrence, 
and the treatment of them is often most tedious and difficult. They 
cannot be explained without a slight sketch of the structure of the 
foot. 

The foot of the horse is composed of a horny covering, or box, 
and its contents. The horny covering is called the hoof; the por- 
tion of it which invisible, when the loot is on the ground, is the 
crust; and beneath are the sole, the bars, and the frog. 

The crust has its lower edge resting on the ground, and as it 
ascends over the coffin bone it takes a direction obliquely backward. 
The degree of obliquity is very different in different horses, and much 



STRUCTURE OF THE FOOT. 187 

of the usefulness of the horse depends on its taking- a proper direction. 
A comparison of different feet hastaught the horseman that thedegree 
of obliquity most consistent with soundness and usefulness is about 
45 degrees. If it is greater than this, and the crust forms an acute 
angle with the sole, or the ground, it is an indication of weakness 
or disease in the foot. In the latter case there has been inflamma- 
tion of the substance by which the cotRn bone is united to the hoof, 
or extension of it, and partial separation of the bones of the foot 
from the crust. The bones have receded, and the crust has fallen 
in; therefore a loo oblique direction of the hoof is accompanied by 
flatness of the soles, and possibly by pumice, or a rounded projec- 
tion or actual sinking of the sole from the pressure of the coffin 
bone upon it. 

On the other hand, if the crust is not so oblique as it ought to be, 
but is becoming to a greater or less degree upright, disease of ano- 
ther kind is indicated. There is contraction, the heels are growing 
narrow, and the contents of the foot are forced upward and forward. 

On the inside of the crust are numerous little projecting horny 
lamellje, or plates, running parallel with each other from the 
coronet to the sole, over the whole of the interior surface. Corre- 
sponding with these are similar ligamentous or membranous pro- 
jections, or plates, springing from a substance that covers the coffin 
bone. 

The crust diminishes in height and thickness as it proceeds back- 
ward, and when it approaches the heel, is distinguished by the 
name of the quarters. Great attention should bo paid to them, in 
all examinations of the foot. If the crust decreases too much and 
too rapidly in height, a weak foot is indicated — an inability to bear 
much rattling on the hard stones, and a greater liability of being 
pricked in shoeing, or otherwise injured. Such a horse is said to 
have low heels. If the decrease in height is little and slow, the 
horse is said to have high heels, and generally has contraction and 
thrush. 

The crust being still continued backward, forms the heel of the 
foot, at the very centre of which it turns round and takes a direc- 
tion again forward, along the outside of the frog, under the name of 
the bars. This continuation and projection of the crust, known by 
the name of the bars, is a very important part of the foot. It is one 
of Nature's protections against contraction; it is one of her guards 
against injury at that part of the sole: but the farrier knows not 
this, and in order to give a delusive appearance of openness to the 
foot, frequently cuts the bars away altogether. 

The heels thus turning inward, there would be a considerable 
chasm at the back of the foot, were it not for a wedge-shaped horny 
substance, called the frog. Its office is to fill this chasm, — to afford 
protection to an elastic substance above, on which the navicular 
bone and the flexor tendons rest, — and also by its shape, and its 



188 STRUCTURE OF THE FOOT. 

point projecting forward, to give a degree of security to the tread 
of the foot. 

The sole covers the remaining part of the base of the foot. 

Within the foot, and the form of the hoof exactly moulded to it, is 
the coffin-bone, or principal bone of the foot. It is fitted into the 
fore-part of the hoof, and occupies about half of it. A small portion 
of the lower pastern-bone is also found within the horny box, which 
uniting with the bone of the foot constitutes the coffin-joint. Inter- 
posed between the coffin bone and the crust is a dense ligamentous 
elastic substance, already referred to, adhering firmly to the whole 
surface of the coffin bone on one side and terminating in numerous 
little plates, which are received and firmly held between the horny 
plates of the crust, on the other side. These plates are so many 
points of support; the whole weight of the horse is thrown upon 
them, and the elastic yielding nature of the interposed substance 
prevents that concussion which would speedily injure and destroy 
the whole mechanism of the foot. The union of the horny and 
membranous plates affords the requisite strength, while the alter- 
nate yielding and contraction of the interposed substance give the 
elasticity of the foot, and the easiness of motion. 

The construction of the back of the foot is more complicated. The 
pasterns take an oblique direction forward. This obliquity is 
designed also to obviate concussion, and, by means of an elastic 
ligament, varies with the different motions of the horse. In the 
blood-horse, the tuft of hair at the fetlock will often be in contact 
with the ground: it is a beautiful contrivance, giving easiness of 
motion to the whole machine. The play of this spring is admirably 
adapted to the form and destiny of the horse. The long and slant- 
ing pasterns of the race-horse suit the springiness of his action and 
the length of his stride — the medium obliquity and length of the 
pasterns of the hunter is adapted to the occasional speed and the 
untired endurance which are required from him in the field, — and 
the comparatively upright position of the pasterns in the road-horse 
fits him for his daily task. There is sufficient obliquity to insure 
some pleasantness of action, but not enough to endanger continuance 
of strength. 

The flexor tendons, — the tendons by which the foot is bent, — run 
along the back of the pastern bones. One of them is continued low 
down into the foot, and is inserted into the heel of the coffin-bone. 
There must be a great deal of motion and play in this tendon, and 
a considerable exposure to injury ; and the back of the foot presents 
much contrivance to prevent the mischief that would otherwise 
ensue. First, there is the navicular bone, placed at the point of 
union between the lower pastern and the coffin-bones, forming a 
joint with both of them, yet moving independently of either. It is 
united to both of them by ligaments, and it presents behind a free 
broad polished surface over which the tendon plays. The navicular 



STRUCTURE OP THE FOOT. 189 

bone partially revolves with every motion of the tendon, and thus 
prevents a great deal of that concussion and friction which must 
otherwise have taken place had the tendon sharply turned over a 
fixed bone, in order to be inserted into the coffin-bone. 

The navicular bone, while it turns, descends, and the tendon 
descends with it, and there is much weight pressing upon both. 
Then there is interposed between these parts and the bottom of the 
foot another highly elastic substance, which is destined to receive 
this pressure, and, yielding as it receives it, obviates unpleasant and 
dangerous concussion : I mean the internal or sensible frog., — the 
cushion on which the tendon and the navicular bone rest. 

This is an important function of the internal frog ; but there is 
another quite as valuable. The horny covering which is adapted 
to the foot of the horse is one of the best that could be contrived ; 
but from its very nature it may occasionally subject the foot to 
considerable pain and inconvenience. It contracts when exposed 
to dryness or heat. The feet of our stabled horses are too liable to 
injury from this source, and there is the fetter of the shoe, which 
still more disposes to contraction, and fixes the contraction when it 
has once taken place. 

The elastic frog yields to the pressure of the descending part of 
the foot ; but how does it yield, — can it be squeezed into a smaller 
compass] No. It partially shifts its situation. It presses upon 
the sole, and the sole descends ; and being naturally concave, it 
flattens as it descends, and thus expands the lower part of the foot : 
and when the weight is taken off" in the lifting of the foot, the sole 
ascends with a kind of rebound, and the frog ascends too, with the 
same kind of springy action, and forces itself against the upper part 
of the foot, and expands that : thus the lower part of the heels are 
expanded by the descent of the sole, and the upper part by the 
compression and elevation of the frog. 

To assist in this, there is another elastic mechanism, placed on 
the upper part of the side of the foot, the lateral cartilages. These 
receive the pressure of the frog; they receive it without concussiori 
or shock, and they increase the expansive effect. A horse soon 
becomes lame when, from the too long continued and violent pres- 
sure of the frog upon the cartilages, as in the straining of heavy 
draught, these cartilages become inflamed, and turned into bone. 

A cursory view of the structure of the foot having been thus 
taken, its diseases and the treatment of them will be more easily 
understood.* 

The diseases of the hoof will first come under consideration. 

* For a more extended accourjt the reader is referred to a treatise on 
the " Structure, Functions, and Diseases of the Foot and Leg of the 
Horse," by W. C. Spooner, M. R. V. C. 

13 



190 SAND-CRACK. 



BRITTLE HOOP. 



This is a very serious inconvenience with some horses, especially 
in hot and dry weather. The hoofs chip away at every shoeing, 
until at last there is scarcely nail-hold, and the farrier is compelled 
to take a great deal more care than smiths in general will take, to 
avoid pricking the horse. 

This brittleness of the hoof is a natural defect in some horses; 
but in others it is brought on by deep and dry litter, and the utter 
neglect of stopping the feet. The very means adopted by some to 
remedy it tend only to increase the evil. All applications of tar 
chould be carefully avoided ; for a crust is formed over the foot as 
the tluid part of the tar evaporates, which stops the pores of the 
hoof, and often produces, and always aggravates, this brittleness of 
tlie foot. 

Cow-dung stopping, with a small portion of clay in it, to give it 
consistence, but not to produce a drying quality, will be found use- 
ful ; but nothing is comparable with the following preparation : — 

RECIPE (No. 74). 

Suppling Liniment for the Feet. 

Take — Oil or spirit of tar, a pint; 
Common fish oil, a quart: 
Mix them together. 

After the feet are cleansed out when the horse comes from his 
•work, and while considerable moisture continues to hang about 
them, take a brush, dip one end of it in this liniment, and well rub 
it over the whole of the crust and sole. This will tend much to 
restore the natural pliancy of the horn, and at the same time will 
very considerably increase its growth. 

SAND-CRACK. 

Connected with this, and usually produced by it, is a fissure or 
longitudinal crack in the hoof. It may be produced in a moment — 
one false step may cause it; but the predisposing cause is unnatural 
brittleness of the hoof Sand-crack usually takes place at the 
weakest part of the foot, or where there is most stress and pressure ; 
therefore it is oftenest in the inner quarter of the fore foot, because 
there the greater part of the weight of the horse is thrown, and the 
hoof is naturally weaker than at the outer quarter : in the hind foot 
the sand-crack is most frequently at the toe, for there is the princi- 
pal stress in the act of drawing. Occasionally it begins at once 
from the coronet, but more generally it is first perceived about the 
middle of the hoof 



SAND-CRACK. 191 

The slightest appearance of sand-crack should be attended to. 
It uniformly begins from without, and penetrates inwardly : it may 
therefore be arrested in its progress when it is merely superficial. 
The hoof should be rasped ; and if this be done in time the sand- 
crack may often be fairly rasped out. If, however, it proves to be 
deep, yet there is no lameness, the foot should not be weakened by 
cutting to the very bottom of the fissure, but a line should be deeply 
drawn with a sharp firing-iron, above and below it, in order to pre- 
vent the crack from spreading either way. 

If lameness accompanies sand-crack, the fissure has penetrated 
through the horn to the sensible parts ; and either gravel has in- 
sinuated itself, and is giving pain by its pressure, or a portion of 
the sensible part beneath has protruded itself into the crack, and is 
there pressed and confined. The crack must now be searched to 
the bottom. The sides must be pared off a little, and then, with a 
very small drawing-kmfe, the scissure must be opened and examined. 
When the dirt or gravel is removed, or the imprisoned laminse 
liberated, a small piece of tow, dipped in Friar's balsam, must be 
introduced into the crack, and the loot immersed in a linseed poul- 
tice for several days, and a stimulating liniment may be rubbed on 
the coronet to encourage the grov;th of horn. Should the crack 
have reached and divided the coronet, it is a more serious business. 

Unless the crack is very slight, the horse should be rested for 
several weeks, and as soon as there is suflicient new horn grown 
down above the crack, but not before, one or two transverse lines 
should be drawn above the crack with the firing-iron, so as to cut 
oflfits communication with the sound horn : similar lines should be 
drawn below the crack and on it; a little melted tar and pitch may 
then be applied to it, and covered with tow and a strap buckled 
tightly round the hoofs. A bar-shoe should be put on, with the 
bearing taken ofi^ the quarter altoijether, and then if the horse is 
much wanted he may go to work, but additional rest will best insure 
the sound growth of the new hoof 

In bad cracks, there may, in the early stage of the treatment, be 
a protrusion of fungous substance. This will be best destroyed by 
running the firing-iron down the centre of the crack. The fungus 
will be burnt down, and a crust will be formed which will defend 
the part, prevent by its pressure the growth of more fungus, and 
gradually change into good horn. 

The sand-crack being removed, care should be taken to prevent 
a return of it. A foot naturally brittle will continue brittle still; 
and hence the necessity of careful stopping at night, and the oc- 
casional use of the suppling liniment for the feet. Pieces of thick 
felt, cut to the shape of the bottom of the horse's foot, introduced 
within the shoe, and soaked well in water every evening, will form 
an excellent stopping. They may be bought from any saddler. 

In the hind feet a sand-crack always takes place at the toe, and 
from the greater strain at this part in heavy draught-horses, to 



192 FALSE QUARTER. 

which description it is almost always confined, the case is more 
serious than in the fore feet. The treatment, however, must be the 
same. The bearing must be altogether taken off the toe ; but a 
bar-shoe will not be required. 

TREAD, OR OVERREACH. 

This is a wound on the coronet, caused, in the fore foot, by the 
hind one overreaching and wounding it, and in the hind foot by the 
heel or caulking of the fore shoe. Warm fomentations should be 
applied, or linseed-meal poultices. The contusion will often be so 
serious, that some degree of sloughing will ensue: the poultices 
should therefore be continued until the core comes out, when the 
Friar's balsam will speedily heal the wound. 

If the coronet is cut through, it is often a very serious affair, and 
may lead to quitter, or false quarter. The first thing to be done is 
here also to poultice, in order to subdue the inflammation, and to be 
enabled to ascertain the real nature and extent of the wound ; and 
this being accomplished, it must be healed as soon as possible by 
means of the Friar's balsam. Should any sinuses form between 
the crust and the coffin-bone, they should be daily injected with the 
mild caustic wash for wounds (Recipe No. 63, p. 159), and when 
the wound begins to heal up from the bottom, the state of the coro- 
net must be particularly attended to. 

FALSE QUARTER. 

Either from neglect of the use of the firing-iron in sand-crack, 
or too severe use of it, or working the horse too soon, or from con- 
tusion, as in tread or overreach, or from the employment of caustics 
instead of emollients in these cases, there is a want of continuity 
in the coronet, and the horn grows down, separated on each side 
from the very beginning ; and, after reaching a little way down the 
foot, one portion of it begins to overlap the other. This is termed 
false quarter. It is a very serious defect in the foot of the horse, 
and rarely to be remedied. The strength of that quarter is mate- 
rially lessened, and dirt and gravel will often insinuate themselves 
between the two plates of horn, and work their way into the foot. 

The course to be pursued in treating this defect in the foot is not 
very different from that recommended in sand-crack. The over- 
lapping portion of horn must be pared away, and the hot iron run 
down the line of division between the horn of the quarter and that 
of the fore part of the hoof It must also be lightly applied to the 
coronet; and the application repeated every third or fourth day, 
until the edges of the coronary fissure begin to adhere. Should not 
this have commenced, after the lapse of a fortnight or three weeks, 
it will be advisable to blister the coronet severely ; and as soon as 
the fissure is obliterated there, the pitch envelope may be put on, 



CONTRACTION. 193 

and the horse returned to gentle work ; or, what would be the safer 
plan, turned out to grass. 

If the case has been of long standing, the veterinary surgeon 
must never expect a thorough cure. It will be a great while be- 
fore he will effect union between the divided portions of the coro- 
net, and then an imperfect and white horn will be secreted ; strong 
enough for ordinary purposes, but always betraying the disease that 
once existed, and threatening again to give way, if unusual exer- 
tion is required : or if it does not quite give way, there will be a 
degree of weakness in that part of the foot, which will occasionally 
show itself by decided lameness. 

CONTRACTION. 

The foot of the young horse, in its perfect state, approaches to a 
circular form ; but he has scarcely entered our service before it 
generally begins to assume a more lengthened shape, narrower 
every where, but especially at the heels. This may, or may not, 
be productive of lameness. If the contraction has been slow in its 
progress, the internal part of the foot will gradually adapt itself to 
the change in the external covering. Gentle and long-continued 
pressure will effect very great changes without being productive 
of pai^ or impairment of function. On this account it is that we 
see many feet elongated, and narrow, yet not particularly high in 
the quarters, nor concave in the sole, and in which there has not 
been the slightest degree of lameness. At other times there will 
be sudden and dead lameness, with very little contraction. 

The Sauses of contraction are numerous. There is not a more 
frequent one than neglect of paring out the foot. It has been just 
observed that one of nature's preventives against contraction is the 
descent of the sole. In a state of nature, the common action of the 
hor.-e prevents the sole from becoming so morbidly thick that it 
cannot descend; but under our mismanagement, and especially that 
of an idle smith, who suffers the sole to thicken month after month, 
because it is too much trouble to him, and too great expenditure of 
time, to pare it well out at each shoeing, it by degrees becomes so 
thickened that it cannot descend ; then the hoof, exposed to the 
heat produced by exercise, the heat of the stable, and many a cause 
of inflammation, very speedily contracts or icires in. I would here 
quote from a work which contains, in a condensed form, the " Use- 
ful Knowledge" of "The Horse." " There is no rule which admits 
of so little exception, that once in about every three weeks the 
growth of horn, which the natural wear of the foot cannot get rid 
of, should be pared off; the toe should be shortened, the sole should 
be thinned, and the heels lowered." 

The heat of the stable, the loss of the bars, and the fettering of 
the shoe, will likewise give a disposition to contraction; but the 



194 CONTRACTION. 

main cause of it is disease of the internal part of the foot, however 
pro luced. 

The lameness of contraction is different from that of sprain or 
corn : it is, at first, more a short, fumbling mode of going, than 
direct lameness. The foot is scarcely lifted from the ground, be- 
cause concussion and pain will be lessened in proportion as the 
horse goes closely to the ground. 

Contraction is therefore both a cause and an effect of disease of 
other parts ; the latter, perhaps, more frequently than the former. 
It is easy to conceive that when the foot is rested in the stable, and 
the horse favours it by going lame, that this want of pressure on 
the back part of the foot must speedily occasion contraction. Al- 
though, therefore, it is a predisposing cause of disease, it is a matter 
of doubt whether alone it ever produces lameness. The disease 
with which it is mostly connected is the navicular-joint disease, 
which remains to be considered. 

The treatment will consist in removing the causes of contraction. 
The sole must be pared all round, until the blood starts as from 
many little pin-holes. The strength of horn must be weakened 
where the pressure is greatest and most painful. Carefully avoid- 
ing to wound the coronary ring, the quarters must be rasped until 
the blood starts. The overloaded vessels of the foot should^be re- 
lieved, and three or four quarts of blood taken from each toe : after 
this, the feet should be enveloped in poultices, changed every day, 
until the unnatural heat of the foot has disappeared. 

When evident, but too often temporary relief is thus afforded, 
tips should be tacked on, and the horse turned out to grass, and if 
possible, in a marsh : at all events, it should be in a moist pasture; 
and there he should remain until the quarters are grown down, 
being taken up once in three weeks, or a month, to have his sole 
pared out, and his quarters rasped. 

If the case is not sufficiently severe to require or to warrant the 
loss of the services of the horse during the long period of turning 
out, swabs should be worn during the day, while the animal is 
standing in the stable, and the feet should be well stopped with 
cow-dung at night The suppHng liniment for the feet (Recipe 
No. 74, p. 190) should also be daily used, and an unfettered shoe (a 
shoe nailed on the outside, and with only one nail beyond the toe 
on the inside) should be applied. This shoe will be sufficiently 
secure under any work that can be required from such a horse, and 
it leaves the quarters at liberty to expand. 

The shoe with a joint at the toe is worse than useless ; for the 
stress on every nail-hole soon breaks away the lower part of the 
crust from a foot rendered by the disease a great deal too brittle. 
The shoe with a clip ai each heel, to prevent its wiring in, is also 
pernicious; for the process of contraction loill go on, and the clip 
will eat into the foot, and be a fruitful source of corns. More in- 
jurious still were those screws by which it was attempted me- 



INFLAMMATION OF THE LAMINA. 195 

chanically to force the heels asunder. Nature rebelled against this 
violence; inflammation tenfold greater was excited, and the work 
of contraction was hastened : or, if the heel yielded for a while to 
the force that was used, it was necessarily at the expense of some 
lesion within, which, as soon as the screw was removed, exhibited 
itself in lameness of a worse character than before. 

INFLAMMATION OF THE LAMINA. 

Proceeding to the diseases of the parts immediately within the 
hoof, " Inflammation of the Laminae," or " Fever in the feet," first 
presents itself, whether its frequency, obstinacy, or sad consequences, 
are considered. 

When it is recollected what the laminse or the substance that 
covers the coffin-bone have to bear, even during the quiet stand- 
ing of the horse (for they support all his weight), and the vio- 
lent concussion and straining to which they are exposed when in 
rapid action the foot comes forcibly in contact with the ground, it 
will not appear surprising that they are often injured, and that 
intense inflammation ensues. Besides this, there is no part of the 
horse so exposed to other causes of inflammation as the foot. After 
the animal has been ridden far and fast, and is hot all over, some 
have most absurdly recommended a general washing for him. 
While he is reeking hot, he is plunged up to his belly in the nearest 
pond or river. There are few, however, who act so brutally as this; 
but almost every groom immediately washes the feet of his horse, 
while very few of them will afterwards take the pains carefully to 
dry the feet. What is so likely to follow as inflammation 3 A 
horse may have been travelling many a mile up to his coronets in 
snow, and when he arrives at his journey's end, instead of having 
the warmth gradually restored to his feet by half an hour's good 
hand- rubbing, he is put up to his knees in straw ; is it not natural 
to expect that violent fever in the feet will follow this sudden and 
unnatural change 1 In other cases, there may be a metastasis or 
change of the place of inflammation : the animal is recovering from 
inflammation of the lungs, yet still with a strong tendency to fever, 
and suddenly the next'weakest part, the feet, are attacked, and that 
without any fault of the surgeon or groom. 

Inflammation of the lamingg can scarcely be mistaken. The 
horse is continually shifting his posture, yet without the violent 
action or sudden plunges of colic and inflammation of the bowels. 
The feet are constantly moving, but they are moved as gently as 
possible. When the hand is passed down to them, the heat, some- 
times the almost burning heat, of the feet is evident enough. Soon, 
however, the horse, tired of shiftinsf his place and yet retaining the 
pain, lies down, and can with difficulty be induced to rise again. 
There is not one character in common with inflammation of any of 
the viscera, except the acceleration of the pulse, and sometimes the 



196 PUMICED FEET. 

breathing, and the heat of the mouth ; and if there were, the horse 
would soon undeceive us, for he often points out his feet as the seat 
of pain, by looking at them, and resting his muzzle upon them. 

The treatment of inflammation of the feet must be prompt. The 
sole must be pared, and the crust rasped, and blood taken from the 
toe, and at least four quarts from each foot (the two fore feet are 
generally those which are attacked). The feet must then be 
enveloped in cloths, and kept constantly wet with the solution of 
nitre (Recipe No, 66, p. 160) ; and a strong dose of physic adminis- 
tered, and mashes, or gruel alone, allowed. 

Other inflammations may possibly, to a certain degree, brook 
delay, but here not a moment is to be lost. The inflammation must 
be made to terminate in resolution ; for if the next process, and in 
some inflammations a salutary one, commences — if pus is thrown 
out, within the foot, the hoof will inevitably come off. Slight inju- 
ries of the foot may sometimes be mistaken for inflammation of the 
laminae, and may yield to mild treatment; but true inflammation of 
this part being once recognised, there is no case which more cer- 
tainly distinguishes the skilful from the unskilful practitioner. 

The bleeding must be repeated in five or six hours, either from 
the feet, the coronet, or the arm, if evident relief is not obtained; 
and a third bleeding should not be delayed if the inflammation is 
obstinate. On the second day recourse should be had to a severe 
blister round the coronet. Some recommend a blister at the very 
beginning, but a blister has generally the most decisive good effect 
when inflammation has been previously a little lowered by other 
means. 

The practitioner will carefully look out for the worst symptoms, 
as well as those of amendment ; and when separation begins to take 
place at the coronet, between the hoof and the foot, it indicates that 
the process of suppuration is established; and that process once 
established in the toot, will goon in defiance of all that can be done. 
It will be useless further to punish the horse, but some relief may 
be obtained by surrounding the feet with poultices. Another hoof 
will in process of time be produced ; but it will be smaller and 
weaker than the first, and liable to inflammation and contraction. 

It is seldom that intense inflammation of any kind terminates 
without effecting some change of structure in the part. Disunion to 
a very considerable extent between the horny and fleshy laminse is 
a frequent consequence of inflammation of the feet, and the result 
of that is, that the coffin-bone is no longer retained in its place, but 
sinks backwards and downwards, and this produces 

PUMICED FEET.* 

The sole is naturally concave : too oflen, under our improper 
management, it becomes flat, but here, the coflfin-bone descending, 

* A remedy for founder, which, we are well assured, is infallible 
giving relief in eighteen or twenty-four hours, so that the animal may 



WOUNDS IN THE FEET. 197 

presses upon the sole, and that pressure produces absorption of a 
portion of the sole, and consequent weakening of it. It is not long 
able to support this pressure of the coffin-bone, and the weight of the 
horse, but it yields and bulges out, and presents a convex surface to 
the ground. This is an incurable state of the foot. Tiie attempt at 
forcing up again the coffin-bone betrays ignorance of anatomy and 
of the progress of disease. When the coffin-bone begins to recede 
from the crust, the hoof follows it to a certain degree ; but its struc- 
ture limits this, and another process commences in order to fill up 
the vacuum: an unnatural quantity of horny matter is secreted by 
the sensitive lamina), and the crust thickens, and projects inwardly 
as the coffin-bone retires : it has sometimes been observed more than 
two inches in thickness. Nature is, as it were, attempting still to 
maintain the union between the parts. 

What power applied to the sole can force back the coffin-bone, 
pressed upon and kept down by-this thickness of horn ; or what 
power can be applied to the external sole without bruising the 
internal and sensible one, and causing inflammation and worse lame- 
ness 1 

By a shoe with a narrow, but deep web, the sole may be raised 
so high that it can scarcely come into contact with the ground; or 
a very strong shoe can be applied with a convex surface towards 
the ground, and a concave one towards the foot, and adapted to the 
degree of projection of the sole, and almost covering it, and render- 
ing impossible either pressure on the part, or accidental bruise from 
aay irregularity of the ground. By means of the last shoe a pamice- 
footed horse may go to slow work for some years, care being taken 
that little or none of the sole is pared away, — that the nail-holes are 
so changed and contrived that the necessary irregular stress upon 
them does not break off the lower part of the crust, and that the 
shoe is strong enough to bear the weight of the horse. 

Pumiced feet are, however, not always the effect of inflamed 
laminse, nor is the hoof and the toe of the coffin-bone always sepa- 
rated. For, in some cases of large heavy horses having originally 
thin, flat feet, the weight of the animnl causes the crust to become 
more oblique, and the sole to bulge. Pumiced feet from this cause 
are by no means so unserviceable as those proceeding from inflamed 
laminae; careful shoeing, indeed, renders the animal useful for 
steady work. 

WOUNDS IN THE FEET. 

The most frequent of these are from pricking in shoeing, or the 
picking up of sharp substances upon the road. If discovered in 

proceed on hia journey, is to dissolve two heaping table-spoonsfull of 
alum in water, and give it as a drink. Instead, as might be supposed, of 
constipating the bowels, it has an opposite effect, rarely requiring any 
aperient to follow. 



198 WOUNDS IN THE FEET. 

time they are very easily managed ; but if the process of suppura- 
tion ; and underrunning has commenced, the cure will be tedious, 
and not always certain. 

When a horse is pricked or stubbed, the farrier pares away the 
horn to the very bottom, and then sometimes places a bit of tow 
wetted with spirit of turpentine on the part, and sets it on fire; and 
if there is no underrunning, and he has fairly laid open the wound, 
it is no very censurable practice, for he forms a kind of crust upon 
the part which at no great distance of time changes into good horn. 

It is indispensable that the wound should be freely opened, and 
to the very bottom ; and then, if a bit of tow, dipped in Friar's bal- 
sam, is put on the wound, and a little more tow on that, and the 
whole is confined with a firm pressure, new horn will very speedily 
be formed. 

When the wound is opened on the following day it should be 
carefully examined all round witli the finger-nail, in order to dis- 
cover whether there is any separation between the horny and sen- 
sible sole, which either had escaped the first examination, or has 
since taken place. If it exists in the slightest degree, the separated 
part must be carefully and thoroughly removed. If there is one 
caution of greater importance than any other in the treatment of 
wounds of the feet, it is to remove every portion of horn that has 
ceased to adhere to the fleshy part beneath. Union can never be 
re-effected ; but the horn thus detached will remain as a foreign 
irritating body. 

If it has been necessary to open round the original wound, the 
exposed surface should be very lightly touched with the chloride 
(butyr) of antimony, applied to it by means of a feather. A pledget 
of soft dry tow, shaped to the wound, should then be put on it, a 
larger piece over that, and the whole confined as before with a firm 
and uniform pressure. There are few wounds over which fresh 
horn will not readily grow by means of this treatment. 

If, however, as is sometimes the case after the horse has been 
pricked in shoeing, the wound cannot be fairly got at, it must at 
least be opened so far as it safely can be, and then a poultice ap- 
plied for two or three days. The Friar's balsam, or the chloride of 
antimony, applied according to circumstances, will after that usually 
complete the cure. 

[In every stable and in every traveller's pocket there should be a 
Picker. '\ 

" A horse-picker is a small iron instrument, so truly convenient 
upon many emergencies, that a prudent traveller, or experienced 
sportsman, is hardly ever seen without one annexed to the handle 
of a knife which ho carries in his pocket: its use is to extract stones, 
peb.bles, or flints, from the bottom of the foot, when they are picked 
up in hunting, or upon the road. 'I'hey are sometimes so firmly 
fixed between the inner eilge of the shoe and the frog, that nothing 
but very violent force with a liammer can remove them ; in such 



QUITTOR. 199 

cases, horses are sometimes led a considerable distance to some 
dwelling" house, before the stone can be extracted ; and the foot is 
probably bruised, or sustains a serious injury, for what might be 
obtained at a trifling expense, and carried with little inconvenience." 

QUITTOR. 

In some cases, and particularly when the wound is beneath the 
crust, pipes or sinuses are formed. Pus has been thrown out, and 
has burrowed between the crust and the sensible parts beneath. 
Irreparable mischief is sometimes done by this process. The most 
favourable state of the case is when matter breaks out at the coro- 
net, soon after the lameness is perceived ; but, occasionally, either 
the farrier has been very careless in his examination of the foot, or 
no notice has been taken of the lameness until the matter has bur- 
rowed in every direction, and has insinuated itself under the car- 
tilages and ligaments, and into the interior part of the foot. None 
but very general rules, therefore, can be laid down for the treat- 
ment of quitlor, and no one but a skilful practitioner should be em- 
ployed in such a case. 

The first rule is to ascertain the direction and extent of the 
sinuses, so as to be enabled to form thence some opinion as to the 
probability of a cure. If the matter has penetrated deep among the 
cartilages a cure is very difficult ; if it has found its way into the 
coffin-joint, a perfect cure is impossible. The probe, theretbre, must 
be carefully used in order to discover what important parts may be 
involved. 

The matter generally finds its way out at one of the quarters, 
and sometimes rather backward in the quarter. If the sinuses run 
backward, the practitioner has a fair chance of success, and may 
undertake the case; but if they run forward, ho must conduct his 
examination carefully and cautiously, and hesitate before he delivers 
a decisive opinion. Here a knowledge of the anatomy of the foot 
will be indispensable. 

The case being undertaken, a second rule comes into action ; 
endeavour to discover some dependent orifice. A sinus may, per- 
haps, be traced down to the sole, or in the direction of the sole; or 
pressure with the pincers will detect some spot in the sole, or low 
down on the crust, where the horse feels particular pain. The 
practitioner should pare down upon that, for it is probable that he 
will find a sinus there. If he is disappointed in this, he must ex- 
amine the fistula afresh, and ascertain where it runs deepest; and 
where, with least danger, he may pass a seton and make an opening. 
There can be little danger in doing this in the posterior part of the 
foot. 

Every part of the sole that is detached must immediately be re- 
moved. Some recommend the removal of the quarters also, so far 
as the sinuses extend ; but the practitioner will hesitate about this, 



200 CORNS. 

because some months must pass before the horn will grow down 
again so far as to render it practicable to work the horse ; and be- 
cause, although the horn, once separated, will never again unite 
with the parts beneath, yet, if you have a fair and dependent orifice, 
the internal wound may heal, the old horn may cover and defend it; 
and, by degrees, the new horn will grow down, carrying with it a 
sound substance underneath. 

An attempt must next be made to excite a healthy action in the 
parts beneath ; which will be most quickly and effectually done by 
injecting a saturated solution of the sulphate of zinc (white vitriol") 
in water. Let this be repeated during four days. Then change 
the injection for one of Friar's balsam, examining the wound every 
two or three days with the probe, in order to ascertain the progress 
of the cure, and also judging of this (and perhaps more accurately) 
by the nature of the matter discharged from the orifice below. 

In some, but comparatively few cases it may be necessary to 
have recourse to a more potent caustic. A saturated solution of 
corrosive sublimate may be substituted for the sulphate of zinc; or 
powdered corrosive sublimate may be rolled in paper and forced 
into the sinuses. The veterinary surgeon will, however, pause 
before he resorts to this last method ; for the sloughing may be too 
deep, and the destruction of the surrounding parts too extensive. 
More horses have been destroyed in consequence of the unneces- 
sary severity and wide sloughing of the caustics used, than from 
the natural progress of the disease. 

BRUISE OF THE SOLE. 

This is a circumstance of frequent occurrence; and of very little 
consequence, if timely and properly treated. A horse in rapid action 
may tread on a sharp projecting stone ; or a stone may have fixed 
itself within the span of the shoe ; or a smaller one may have in- 
sinuated itself between the web of the shoe and the foot; or the 
sole may not have been pared properly out, and a flat shoe may 
have been worn ; all of these things will cause pressure upon, and 
bruise of the sole. The injured part may always be detected by the 
pain which the horse evinces when it is pressed upon, and often by 
the discoloration of the horn. 

The sole, over and around the tender or discoloured spot, should 
be pared, not only until it yields to the pressure of the thumb, but 
until the blood begins to start. The appearance of the blood will 
be a satisfactory proof that the bruise has not run on to suppuration. 
Bleeding at the toe, and one or two poultices, will remove the 
effects of bruises of this kind. 

CORNS. 

These are bruises of a more serious nature. They are situated 
in the angle between the bar and the quarter, and generally on the 



CORNS. - 201 

inner side of the fore-foot. They generally indicate neglect or false 
economy in the owner, or unskilfulness in the farrier. 

The owner is in fault when he suffers the shoe to remain on too 
long. It should be removed, and the foot well pared out, once in 
every three weeks, otherwise the shoe will, in the farrier's language, 
" grow into the foot," i. e. the shoe preventing the natural growing 
down of the horn at the heel, the crust will be prolonged on -the 
outside of the shoe, and the bearing will be thrown upon, and bruise 
a portion of the sole. If the shoe becomes loosened at the heel, 
gravel will frequently insinuate itself between the crust and the 
shoe, within the bar, and accumulate there, and bruise the sole ; or 
if the shoe is made narrow at the heel, which it too often is for the 
purpose of giving a false appearance of width to the heels, the por- 
tion within the bar and the quarter is injuriously exposed ; or if, 
for the same ridiculous purpose, the bars are pared away, a slanting 
direction is given to the shoe, perfectly inconsistent with level 
bearing, and a necessary cause of partial pressure. The habitual 
use of shoes raised at the heels is a cause of corn, from the dispro- 
portionate pressure and concussion thrown on that part of the toot. 
On the other hand, a foot naturally, or from neglect or disease, 
contracted, often has corns, because the portion of the foot between 
the quarter and the bar is squeezed into smaller compass, and 
bruised. 

Severe bruises are generally accompanied by extravasation of 
blood in the cellular membrane beneath the skin ; so, in consequence 
of a bruise between the quarter and the bar, a little blood is thrown 
out, which insinuates itself into the young horn, and the existence 
of corn is indicated by the red appearance of the horn, when the 
angle of the bars is cleared out. 

Corns are too much trifled with in common practice. A horse 
with a corn cannot be considered as sound, unless the diseased 
appearance is so very slight as not by any possibility to occasion 
lameness, for in general he is liable to become lame without a 
moment's notice, and it is seldom that the corn can be completely 
cured. The habit of secreting unhealthy and soft horn (and that 
must be unhealthy which is mixed up with blood) cannot always be 
broken off; the tenderness occasioned by bad corn will not soon 
subside ; and the least neglect in shoeing will almost inevitably 
produce a return of the evil. 

The cure is to be attempted by paring out the angle at the quar- 
ter and the bar almost to the quick. The extent of the mischief 
will thus be rendered evident, while the horse will be relieved by 
the pressure being taken from the part. If it is a simple bruise, 
without suppuration, which will be immediately known by the pres- 
sure of the thumb, and by the starting of the blood from a pin-hole 
or two, a little of the butyr of antimony should be lightly applied, 
by means of a small quantity of tow, wrapped round a bit of stick, 
and then the shoe should be so contrived that all pressure shall be 



202 ■? CANKER. 

taken from the part. The butyr of antimony will stimulate the 
almost denuded sole to throw out more healthy horn, and the re- 
moval of the pressure of the shoe will be the most likely method to 
prevent a return of the complaint. If lameness, however, attends 
the corn, it will be most prudent to poultice the foot for a few days 
before the shoe is applied, as this will remove the inflammation and 
dispose the parts to secrete healthy horn. The daily use of the 
" suppling liniment for the feet" (Recipe No. 74, p. 190) will go 
far to restore the natural elasticity and uniform growth and bearing 
of the horn. A bar shoe, however, will most effectually relieve the 
pressure on the seat of corn, and may be worn for a month or two, 
but it must not be adopted for constant wear ; for although it takes 
away the pressure which the quarter will not now bear, it too often 
throws it on a part — the heel — which was never designed to re- 
ceive permanent pressure, and which often becomes considerably 
injured by this means. After the bar shoe has been left off, the 
unfettered shoe, and always seated, will be resorted to with much 
advantage, either for temporary or permanent use. 

Corn is in some cases a more complicated affair. The inflamma- 
tion will run on to suppuration. Matter is thrown out between the 
horny and sensible sole, and produces separation between them, and 
lays the foundation for quittor, or canker. Every separated portion 
of horn must be removed ; the separation must be followed to its full 
extent; and the means adopted which are recommended under 
quittor and canker. 

The farrier and the owner should make themselves perfectly 
masters of the kind of foot which the horse with corns may possess, 
for difierent horses require essentially difierent treatment. A horse 
with high heels, and hard hoof, can scarcely have his foot too 
thoroughly pared out at each shoeing ; while the horse with low 
weak heels has not a particle of horn to lose, and the inner heel, the 
seat of corn, should more especially be spared. 

CANKER. 

Canker is not merely the separation of the horn from the sensible 
part of the foot, but the growth of a fungous substance instead of 
healthy horn. 

In bad cases of long standing, in which the sole, bars, and crust 
are all involved, it will rarely be prudent to attempt a cure ; but in 
milder cases every portion of separated horn must be removed, 
otherwise the confinement of the fungus beneath it will not only 
exceedingly torture the horse, but, by the irritation which it pro- 
duces, prolong the disposition to throw out this substance. This is 
a rule which admits of no exception; and the farrier must never be 
terrified at the extent to which he lays the foot bare : not the 
slightest good can be done while there is any portion of fungus 
confined. 



CANKER. 203 

Having laid the unhealthy part perfectly open, the practitioner 
will consider what kind of surface it present?. If there is much 
fungus, he will probably resort to the knife or the cautery, or both. 
The fungus must be destroyed, and it cannot be done too soon, or 
with too unsparing a hand. A level surface being thus produced, 
the butyr of antimony should be lightly applied over the whole of it. 
Farriers have a long list of torturing substances for the cure of 
cankers, and which not only destroy the surface to which they are 
applied, but deeply and injuriously eat into the foot. The butyr of 
antimony acts where we want it, on the surface alone ; and as it 
becomes combined with the fungous substance to which it is applied, 
and the moisture which exudes, it becomes weaker, and is speedily 
neutralized. Except it is used in outrageous quantities, it cannot 
deeply corrode the foot. 

This being done, dry soft tow must be spread over the whole of 
the exposed surface, and made firmly and equally to press upon it ; 
and the horse must be put into a thoroughly dry box, from which the 
urine will immediately run off, and where no kind of moisture can 
reach the diseased part. Every case of canker should be daily 
dressed ; for the fungus sprouts very rapidly, and the habit of form- 
ing it, instead of healthy horn, is too soon established. Every time 
that the foot is opened, it should be carefully examined, in order to 
see that there is no other portion of horn separated ; for if there is, 
it must be immediately removed. The appearance of the exposed 
surface must also be inspected with great attention. Fresh fungus 
will require a fresh and severe application of the butyr, or possibly 
of the knife. Every little pellicle of skinny matter or soft and 
porous horn must also be pared away ; the healthy horn which has 
been secreted must be lightly run over with the knife; and then 
the butyr of antimony once more applied to the whole of the surface, 
the quantity used on the different portions of it varying with the 
progress towards a cure. After this the foot must be bound up as 
before. 

A few days having passed, if the sprouting of the fungus has been 
quite checked, but yet the horn does not grow so healthily as could 
be wished, the butyr may be omitted, and a pledget of tow, dipped 
in genuine Friar's balsam (compound tincture of benzoin), spread 
over that portion of the foot, and more dry tow placed upon this, and 
bound down as before, and as firmly and equably as possible. A 
sudden change of the soft spongy horn into that which is healthy 
and without pores will, by this application, often be effected; but 
should not this take place to the desired extent, the use of the 
butyr must be for a while resumed. 

The whole secret of the treatment of canker consists in the use 
of superficial caustics or stimulants, — pressure as firmly and as 
equably as it can be made, and the careful avoidance of all greasy 
applications, and all moisture, either applied immediately to the 
foot, or suffered to penetrate to it through the dressing. The Friar's 



204 THRUSH. 

balsam is only a seeming, not a real exception to this ; for the spirit 
quickly evaporates, and leaves a firm glutinous surface in contact 
with the cankered part. 

If wet can certainly be avoided, a horse with a cankered foot 
will, immediately after the first apparent growth of good horn, do 
much better at work than standing idle in the stable. 

As this is a mere local complaint, medicines are not often needed, 
except it should be a mild dose of physic, or a few diuretic balls, in 
order to get rid of any homour, or tendency to grease ; for canker 
and grease are not unfrequently connected, and the one will too 
often terminate in the other. 

THRUSH. 

Thrush, oftener found in the hind feet than in the fore ones, and 
more inveterate there, is recognised by a discharge of offensive 
matter from the cleft of the frog. It is inflammation of the lower 
surface of the heel of the sensible frog; and the matter oozes 
through the horn, or a cleft formed in it. It is not always accompa- 
nied by lameness, but there is a treachery about it, against which 
all due precaution should be taken. There is often more mischief 
done within than is at first indicated, and it may run on to invete- 
rate canker, and incurable lameness. 

Many horsemen suppose that thrushes are things of very little 
consequence ; nay, that they are sometimes useful, by carrying away 
humours that might break out injuriously elsewhere. Nothing can 
be more erroneous than this. Recent thrush cannot be too quickly 
got rid of; and one established for many years should be stopped, 
but somewhat more cautiously and slowly. Little credit is to be 
given to the stories of cutaneous eruption, staggers, or blindness 
being produced by the too speedy stoppage of thrush. 

The frog should be carefully examined, and every ragged and 
separated portion pared away ; and then a little of the following 
paste should be spread on a pledget of tow, and introduced as neatly 
and as deeply as may be into the cleft of the frog, the ends of the 
tow being carefully tucked in. 

RECIPE (No. 75). 

Thrush Paste. , 

Take — Alum ; 

Bli'ic vitriol ; and 
White ditto, of each an ounce: 
Rub them to fine powder. Melt together two' pounds of tar and one of 
lard, and when they are getting cool stir in the powder. 

If the disease has spread, so as to render a portion of the frog 
Lare, some of the paste should be spread on a piece of tow of a cor- 



NAVICULAR-JOINT DISEASE. 205 

responding size, and placed over the sore, and the whole covered 
with dry tow, or tov/ dipped in the ointment (Recipe 71, p. 185). It 
occasionally may be necessary to touch the sore part with the butyr 
of antimony. In cases of bad thrush a bar shoe should be worn, in 
order to protect the frog from pressure and injury, and the foot 
should be kept from moisture almost as carefully as in canker. 

NAVICULAR-JOINT DISEASE. 

This is a very frequent cause of great and almost incurable lame- 
ness ; but its nature and treatment have not, until lately, been 
understood. 

The manner of the insertion of the flexor tendon into the base of 
the coffin-bone, and the interposition of the navicular-bone in order 
to prevent that concussion and friction which must otherwise have 
taken place whenever the foot was put forcibly on the ground, have 
been already explained at p. 188. 

A moment's reflection will, however, satisfy any one, that, not- 
withstanding the admirable mechanism of the part, there must occa- 
sionally, in sudden and violent motion, be bruise and injury of the 
membrane of the tendon, or the cartilage of the bone. This will 
especially happen if, after the horse has stood idle for several days, 
and the parts are somewhat indisposed for motion, he is suddenly 
taken from the stable, and ridden far and fast. The bone will not 
then descend with sufficient freedom, nor the tendon play with 
perfect ease, and the parts will of necessity be bruised ; and the 
membrane of a joint being as sensible as the membrane of the eye, 
the animal will suffer acute pain, and the inflammation will be rapid 
and intense. This is the unsuspected cause of many a sad and 
incurable lameness. 

The foot may become so altered in structure that the navicular- 
bone cannot descend, and thence will necessarily result concussion, 
and bruise, and lameness. This is the explanation of the fact 
already adverted to, that contraction is not always accompanied by 
lameness. The wiring in of the heels may have been so gradual 
that the internal part of the foot may have adapted itself to the slow 
change ; the navicular-bone may have become shortened as the 
heels contracted, and may still have had room to descend in the 
action of the foot. This will usually be the case when the contrac- 
tion of the heel is not accompanied by much hollovvness of the sole, 
or elevation of the frog. But when the heels become high, i. e., the 
frog is elevated from the ground, and the sole becomes concave, it 
will be evident that the descent of the navicular-bone will be 
limited, or perhaps altogether prevented ; and then there must be 
concussion and bruise, and injury of the tendon, or of the cartilage 
of the bone, or of both. 

Of the cure of this disease little that is satisfactory can be said. 
The course, however, that is to be pursued is plain enough. The 

14 



206 SHOEING. 

inflammation must be abated by bleeding at the toe, by poultices 
long continued, and by physic. The contraction must be attacked 
in the manner already described. The coronet should be blistered 
in an early stage of the disease, with the hope of transferring a por- 
tion of the inflammation from the interior to the exterior of the foot ; 
and a seton should be passed through the frog, which, by exciting 
constant irritation and discharge so near to the original disease, 
may also be productive of benefit in a similar way. 

Should all other means fail, neurotomy may be resorted to : it is, 
however, subject to the objection that, in a case that has been long 
established, it is impossible to tell what mischief may have been 
done either to the tendon or the navicular-bone. The tendon may 
have been partly worn through ; the bone may have become carious ; 
and then, all pain being removed by the operation, and the weight 
of the horse thrown suddenly and flush upon the part, the tendon 
may be ruptured, or the bone fractured, and thus lameness a 
thousand times worse, and perfectly incurable, may be established. 

In recent cases neurotomy must not be resorted to until inflam- 
mation is, as much as possible, subdued in the part. Many a horse 
has been lost from want of attention to this. The effect of neuro- 
tomy is confined to the relief of pain. Inflammation and disorga- 
nization will go on as before ; they will even proceed with increased 
rapidity when the part is called into violent action, or subjected to 
injuries and bruises from which tjae sense of pain would have pre- 
served it. 



CHAPTER XXXII. 

ON SHOEING. 

The principle of shoeing is to aflford a secure defence for the 
foot without interfering more than is necessary with its func- 
tions. In ancient times horses went unshod. The roads, where 
there were any, were probably as rough as they now are, but the 
horse derived from its parents a hoof little susceptible of injury. 
Our horses have for many centuries been shod ; and shoeing is be- 
come a necessary evil among us, for the foot of the horse is now 
hereditarily soft and liable to injury. We obtain by means of the 
shoe a defence for the horse's foot against the hard and flinty roads 
over which a great portion of his work must be performed; but the 
crust being fettered by the iron and the nails, we lose much of the 
natural elasticity of the foot; and by carelessness or ignorance in 
the manner of afl^xing the shoe, we often occasion an unequal 



SHOEING. 207 

bearing on the different parts of the foot, necessarily productive of 
great mischief 

The first object of shoeinp^ is defence ; that is accomplished by 
almost any kind of shoe nailed round the bottom of the foot, the 
web of which is sufficiently wide and thick. We prevent mischief 
to a certain extent, by contriving to have the bearing as nearly as 
possible where nature designed that it should be. The whole 
weight of the horse is supported by the crust when the foot first 
comes in contact with the ground, and the sole afterwards descends 
for the purpose of preserving the elasticity of the foot. Then nature 
and reason demand that the shoe shall be constructed so that the 
bearing shall still be thrown on the crust, and that the sole shall 
have room and power to descend. 

THE CONCAVE-SEATED SHOE. 

The concave-seated shoe answers these purposes well. It has a 
flat surface on the foot-side, running round it, and corresponding 
with the thickness of the crust; and the lower part of the crust 
being pared evenly round, the whole weight of the horse is placed 
on a flat level bearing. A shoe, however, simply of the width of 
the crust would not afford sufficient defence to the sole, therefore 
the web is prolonged on the inner part of the circle for about double 
the width of the seated part all round. But this must not press 
upon the sole, for, whatever might have been the case before the 
art of shoeing was invented, the sole will not now bear the slightest 
pressure without injury. Then the foot-side of the shoe is bevelled 
or hollowed out, and presents a concave surface to the sole, so that 
even when the sole descends immediately after the foot is brought 
into contact with the ground, there is room left for that descent, 
without the possibility of touching any part of the shoe. 

The concave-seated shoe presents to the ground an accurately 
flat surface, and to the foot a surface flat towards the outside, where 
it is to receive the crust, and hollow over the sole. Towards the 
quarters the shoe narrows, and the seating widens, so as to afford a 
level bearing, sufficiently broad to receive and protect the union of 
the bar and the quarter, and the angle which is formed between 
them. 

The common country-shoe is a very different one, and highly 
objectionable. It also is flat towards the ground, but it presents to 
the foot either a flat surface, or an uniformly-bevelled concave one. 
It is much more easily made than the other, and that is a very con- 
siderable -object with too many smiths. If the foot surface of the 
shoe is slanting, the crust must be cut in a slanting direction, in 
order to correspond with the shoe; and there will be much diffi- 
culty in doing this so as to obtain a perfectly level bearing for the 
crust. The slanting direction of the shoe will also give a slanting 
direction to the nails, and throw an unequal stress upon them, so 



208 SHOEING. 

that the crust will be likely to chip and break. If the foot surface 
of the shoe is flat, there will be no room left for the descent of the 
sole, wiiich will, consequently, be continually bruised and injured, 
and little pieces of gravel, introduced between the shoe and the sole, 
will get embedded there, and do considerable mischief: whereas, 
from the larger space in the concave-seated shoe they are much 
more easily shaken out again, and can scarcely be retained at all. 

This shoe will suit almost every kind of foot, even that which is 
a little disposed to pumice; whereas, the common shoe, although it 
may be worn without inconvenience on the concave foot, must be 
dangerous on the flat one, and almost necessarily productive of evil 
where the sole is in the least degree convex. 

Usually also in the seated shoe, — and a point of very great im- 
portance it is, — the web is of the same thickness from the toe to the 
heel. This best suits the majority of feet, for it gives the most 
level bearing. 

After all, how^ever, more depends on the preparation of the foot 
than on the kind of shoe. The sole should be well pared out all 
round, until it will yield a little to the pressure of the hardened 
thumb of the operator. In a state of nature the sole would be pre- 
vented from morbidly thickening by the natural wear and tear of 
the foot; but we prevent this by the defence which we give to the 
sole, and the horn is continually accumulating; we must therefore 
periodically remove it with the knife, or we shall lose altogether 
that little portion of the elasticity of the foot which shoeing has left 
to us. A great deal depends here on the skill of the smith and the 
nature of the foot. From some feet very little can be taken with 
safety, because, although we must have an elastic, we must not 
have a thin and tender sole. From other feet too much can scarcely 
be pared away, and mischief will inevitably be produced if the horn 
is suffered to accumulate. 

The sole being pared out, an even surface must begiven to the 
crust; but must not be brought precisely iaon a level with the sole, 
lest that part should be unnecessarily exposed to bruise, either from 
the shoe or from other causes. 

The bars must always be left prominent, for they are nature's 
chief impediments to contraction. The angle between them and 
the quarter should be very carefully pared out, on account of its 
being the seat of corn. 

The frog should be left in a somewhat prominent state, and this 
should be the measure of its prominence : — it should, when practi- 
cable, be on a level, or rather more projecting than the heels of the 
foot, so that it may not touch the ground when the foot is first set 
down; and yet so slightly removed from a level with the lower 
surface of the shoe, that it shall certainly touch it when the ground 
is anyways soft or uneven. All the ragged and diseased parts of 
the frog must be removed at every shoeing. 

The heels will forni the last, and one of the most important points 
of consideration ; for, from unequal or undue pressure on them 



THE BAR SHOE. 209 

much mischief often arises. The inner heel is always the weaker 
of the two; the principal wear will be on it; and there, in a great 
majority of instances, corn and sand-crack, and quittor will be found. 
The growth of the inner heel must be encouraged as much as pos- 
sible; a little only must generally be pared from it, and, more par- 
ticularly, care must be taken that it is not left higher than the 
other. 

Then comes the selection of the shoe to suit the different feet. 
It should, with few exceptions, be the concave-seated shoe, and 
with a web equally thick from the toe to the heel ; but the bearing 
of the shoe will strangely vary with the kind of foot. It is scarcely 
possible that a shoe, thinner at the heel than at the toe, can ever be 
serviceable ; on the contrary, it will generally do much harm, by 
throwing undue stress on the flexor tendon. It will be a fruitful 
source of sprain of the back sinews and pasterns, and also of the 
navicular disease. On the other hand, a shoe a little elevated at 
the heel, may favour a leg weak in the back sinews ; but, if it is 
used constantly, it will also be injurious by unnecessarily pressing 
upon, and bruising the heels. In the hinder foot, and particularly 
in draught horses, custom has sanctioned the use of a shoe raised at 
the heel by calkins. This certainly gives the horse a better pur- 
chase, and enables him to draw a heavier load. A draught-horse 
always digs his toe into the ground v;hen he has a heavy weight 
to move, and he can do this more effectually when the heel is raised. 
But this practice is carried to an absurd and ruinous length. In 
many horses of heavy draught, the only bearing points, — the only 
parts of the shoe which touch the ground, — are the tip of the toe, 
and the end of the calkin. There must be sad inequality of pres- 
sure here ; and the ossification of the cartilages, and enlargement 
of the pasterns, and grease, and other diseases with which the 
draught-horse is too often afflicted, are too well accounted for. 

Of the varieties of shoes in common use, it is necessary to notice 
only the following: — 

THE BAR SHOE. 

This is often indispensable. It is the only means by which the 
pressure can be thrown from the seat of sand-crack or corn ; but 
then it is thrown on a part, — the frog, — which nature never de- 
signed to receive much pressure, and therefore the bar shoe should 
be left off as soon as the case will permit. On the other hand, it is 
sometimes used to protect a tender frog from injury, the hinder part 
of the shoe being thickened, and hollowed over the frog ; but, unless 
it is made exceedingly heavy, it will soon be flattened down and in 
the meantime it will most injuriously press upon the heels. 

For pumiced feet, a bar shoe is usually necessary; the dressing 
cannot be confined on a cankered foot without one ; but the bar shoe 
is only a make-shift one, and the horse that wears it can never be 



210 SHOEING. 

said to be safe, especially in frosty weather. If it is at times ne- 
cessary, it is nevertheless an evil, and should be got rid of as soon 
as possible. 

THE ONE-SIDED NAILED SHOE. 

This shoe has one more than its complement of nails on the outer 
side, a nail at the centre of the toe, and one or two tolerably close 
to it on the inner side. It was applied by the old farriers and often 
with good effect, in the prevention of cutting; but it is now disco- 
vered to have more important uses. The inner quarter, where 
contraction usually first commences, and where it exists in the 
greatest degree, is in a manner i'ree ; it can expand when the foot 
comes on the ground, and it can contract again when it is lifted in 
the air. This shoe affords all the defence to the foot for which we 
have recourse to shoeing ; while it leaves much of that natural action 
of the foot, the loss of which is the greatest evil inflicted by 
shoeing. 

When adopted early, it preserves to a very material degree the 
natural shape of the foot; and when resorted to after contraction 
has commenced, it restores always to some beneficial degree, and 
sometimes in a very surprising manner, the former width of the 
heels. It prevents corn, and it removes that concussion and pain 
which the animal feels when the shoe is firmly fixed to the quarter, 
and presses on the heel. 

It has an appearance of insecurity about it, but that insecurity is 
only in appearance. The shoe will remain, and last its usual time 
on the foot of a hackney, not too hardly worked; and many stage- 
coach horses now run with it and do not cast their shoes oftener 
than they used to do. It would not, however, suit heavy draught 
horses, and it might be wrenched from the foot of the hunter when 
he went over a stiff country. 

THE EXPANSION SHOE. 

This is a shoe with a joint in the centre of the toe, moving, or 
supposed to move, on a pivot, and thus expanding the heel. It 
must, however, be" evident that when once nailed to the foot, the 
expansion can be very little, and such as it is, it must necessarily 
be different in different parts of the foot. In the heel it is consi- 
derable; towards the toe it can scarcely be said to exist: yet the 
nails are all equally fixed, and any action of the joint would only 
throw destructive stress on that part of the shoe which should ex- 
pand most, but which is tied down like the rest, and thus tear and 
destroy the crust, and break out almost every nail-hole. This shoe 
is therefore now little used. 

• THE CLIP SHOE. 

There is a clip on the inside of each heel, which passes over and 



TIPS. 211 

presses upon the inside of the bar, and is thought by some to oppose 
a mechanical obstruction to the progress of contraction. But this 
is all delusion ; no contrivance of this kind can stop the wiring in 
of the heels, when it has once commenced. They will continue to 
narrow, and the bars will press upon the clip?, and the clips will 
embed themselves in the bars, or sadly bruise them, and corn, and 
perhaps quittor, will be added to the original evil. 

THE SCREW SHOE. 

This shoe, likewise, had its day. It was jointed at the tie, and it 
had a screw at the heel, passing from one side to the other, and by 
means of which the heels of the shoe were forced asunder, and, 
with them, the quarters to which they were attached. The feet 
were macerated day after day by means of poultices and warm 
water, and a deceptive degree of pliability was given to the horn. 
The screw-shoe was then put on, and the screw was turned a little 
every day, and the heels were slowly, but evidently widened, and 
the foot began to assume a new appearance, and it was believed 
that wonders were performing. There were two things, however, 
not taken into calculation : — the difference between moist and dry 
horn, and the impossibility of introducing any thing into the interior 
of the foot, to fill the chasm which the forcible separation of the 
horn from the sensible parts beneath was making. Therefore it 
happened that, ere many weeks had passed, and in sonje cases, ere 
many days had gone by, the heels had narrowed again, and the 
contraction was aggravated, and the lameness materially increased 
by the absurd violence that had been used. 

TIPS. 

These are half shoes, extending only around the toe, and put on 
in order to preserve the crust from being battered and torn when 
the horse is turned out. The quarters are left perfectly unfettered, 
and therefore it is that a horse with contracted feet often derives so 
much good from a run at grass. The advantage of the tips may be 
carried still farther : every horse that is soiled during the summer 
should wear tips. If a horse is turned into a loose box, only for a 
week or two, he should have tips. No harm can ever be produced 
by them; but, on the contrary, much benefit must ensue from this 
unfettered state of the foot. 



INDEX. 



A. 

Amputation of the penis, when necessary, 145; mode of, 146 
Arch, zygomatic, description and uses of, 16 
Arsenic, as a medicine, 122 ; poisoning from, 122 
Ascarides in horses, 125 ; injection for, 125 

B. 

Back, length of, in the horse, 25 ; proper form of, 26 

Back sinews, sprains of the, causes and treatment of, 169 

Bar shoe, description and uses of, 209 

Bladder, inflammation of the, 138 ; of the neck of, 139 ; gravel and stone 

in the, 140 ; inversion of the, 147 
Blain in the horse, symptoms and treatment of, 67 
Bleeding, when to be performed, 34 ; method of, 34 ; from the jugular 

vein, 35 ; local, in inflammation, 35 ; in carditis. 111 
Blistering, a remedy for grogginess, 1 74 
Bog spavin, treatment of, 178 
Bone, round, sprain of the, 176 

Bones of the fore-legs, fractures of the, treatment of, 174 
Bone spavin, causes of, 178 ; remedy for, 179 
Bots, symptoms and treatment of, 123 
Bowels, inflammation of the, 126 ; of the muscular and mucous coats of, 

126, 127 ; calculi in the, 133 
Brain, inflammation of the, 54 ; treatment of, 55 
Breaking of the horse, directions for, 28 
Brittle hoof, remedy for, 190 
Broken knees, treatment of, 165 
Bronchitis, symptoms and treatment of, 85-87 
Bruise of the sole, treatment of, 200 



214 INDEX. 

C. 

Calculi in the bowels, 133 

Canker, treatment of, 203 

Carditis, causes and symptoms of, 111 ; treatment of, 112 

Castration, directions for, 142 

Catarrh, epidemic, 87 ; maiig-nant epidemic, 90 

Chest, description of, 23 

Clip shoe, description and uses of, 210 

Coffin joint, sprain of the, 173 

Colic, spasmodic, symptoms and treatment of, 129, 130 ; flatulent, 131 

Concave-seated shoe, description and uses of, 207 

Condition, want of, 151 

Consumption, treatment of, 102 

Contagion, a source of mange, 153 

Contraction of the hoof, remedy for, 193-195 

Corns, causes of, 201 ; treatment of, 202 

Corrosive sublimate, poisoning from, 123 

Coryza, treatment of, 70 

Cough, chronic, remedy for, 100 

Curb, definition of, 180; symptoms and treatment of, 180 

Cutting, in horses, treatment of, 172 



D. 

Diabetes, inconvenience from, 134 ; treatment of, 134, 135 
Diaphragm, spasm of, remedy for, 113 
Diseases of the skin, treatment of, 151 
Docking, method of performing, 148 
Dropwort-water, poisoning from, 122 



E. 

Ears, characteristics of, 17 

Elbow joint, injuries of the, 164 

Enlarged hock, remedy for, 180 

Enlargement of the heart, 113 

Enteritis, symptoms and treatment of, 126 

Epidemic catarrh, 87 ; malignant, 90 

Epilepsy, causes and symptoms of, 119 ; incurable, 119 

Excoriations, treatment of, 157 

Expansion shoe, description of, 210 

Extremities, fore, injuries of, 163-175 ; hind, injuries of, 175-186 

Eye, a guide to the quality of a horse, 16 ; inflammation of, 61 

F. 

False quarter, treatment of, 192 

Farcy, symptoms and. treatment of, 75-78 



INDEX. 215 

Fetlock joint, sprain of the, 171 

Feet, pumiced, treatment of, 196; wounds in the, management of, 197 

Fistulous withers, causes and treatment of, 162 

Flatulent colic, remedy for, 131 

Foot, structure and diseases of the, 186-206 

Fore-arm, sprain of the, 164 

Fore extremities, injuries and lameness of, 163-175 

Fractures, of bones of the fore-legs, treatment of, 174 ; of the haunch, 175 



G. 



Gigs, in horses, treatment of, 84 

Glanders, symptoms and treatment of, 70-75 

Glands, inflammation of, 82-84 

Gravel in the bladder, operation for, 140 

Grease, remedies for, 183 

Grogginess, directions for the cure of, 174 

Gutta Serena, or glassy eye, 66 



H. 

Haunch, fracture of the, treatment of, 175 

Head of the horse, description of, 13 ; setting on of, 14 

Heart, inflammation of the, 111 ; enlargement of, 113 

Hide-bound, symptoms and treatment of, 151 

Hind extremities, injuries and lamenesses of, 175-186 

Hock, enlarged, remedy for, 180 

Hoof, brittle, remedy for, 190; laminae of the, inflammation of, 195 

Hydrothorax, symptoms and treatment of, 108 



I. 

Indigestion, symptoms of, 58 ; treatment of, 59 

Inflammation, general remarks on, 33 ; of the brain, 54 ; of the eye, 61 ; 
of the tongue, 67 ; of the palate, 68 ; of the membrane of the 
nose, 70; specific, or glanders, 70; of the absorbents, 75-78; of 
the cellular substance under the jaw, 79-81 ; of the glands, 82 ; 
of the bronchial tubes, 85 ; of the lungs, 93 ; of the heart and its 
investing membrane. 111; of the stomach, 120; of the bowels, 
126 ; of the kidneys, 135 ; of the bladder, 138 ; of the skin of the 
heel, 182 ; of the laminae of the hoof, 195 ' 

Influenza, treatment of, 92 

Injuries of the fore extremities, 163-175; of the elbow joint, 164; of the 
hind extremities, 175-186 

Intestines of the horse, description of, 28 ; strangulation and introsuscep- 
tion of, 132 

Inversion of the womb, 1 46 



216 INDEX. 

J. 

Jaw, lower, importance of, 22 

Joint, fetlock, sprain of the, 171 ; pastern, sprain of, 173 ; navicular, 
disease of, 205 



K. 



Kidneys, inflammation of the, 135 
Knees, broken, treatment of, 165 
Knuckling, remedy for, 174 

L. 

Lameness, and injuries of the fore extremities, 163-175 ; shoulder, 163; 

of the hind extremities, 175-186 
Laminaa of the hoof, inflammation of, 195 
Lampas, symptoms and treatment of, 68, 69 
Legs, swelled, cure of, 181 

Lips, description of, 14; criterion of the quality of a horse, 14 
Liver, functions of, 28 

Locked jaw, causes and symptoms of, 115, 116; remedies for, 117 
Loins, breadth of, 27 
Lumbricus teres, in horses, 124 



M. 

Madness, symptoms and treatment of, 60 

Malignant catarrh, symptoms and treatment of, 90 

Mange, causes and symptoms of, 153 ; similarity of, to surfeit, 154 ; 

remedies for, 154-156 
Moulting, a natural process, 156 ; treatment during, 157 
Muscular and mucous coats of the bowels, inflammation of, 126 



N. 

Navicular joint, disease of the, 205 ; bleeding for, 206 

Neck, characteristics of, 22 

Neck of the bladder, inflammation of the, symptoms and treatment of, 139 

Nicking, objections to, 149; mode of performing, 149 

Nostrils, characteristics of, 14 ; false, 15 ; cartilaginous division of, 15 

O. 

Overreach, in horses, treatment of, 192 



INDEX. 217 



Palate, soft, of the horse, 17 

Palsy, causes and treatment of, 119, 122 

Paps, treatment of, 84 

Parsley water, palsy produced by, 122 

Pastern joint, sprain of the, reduction of, 173 

Penis, swelling of the sheath of the, 145 ; amputation of, 146 ; warts on 

the, 146 
Pericarditis, symptoms and treatment of, 112 
Phrenitis, symptoms of, 54; treatment of, 55 
Pleurisy, definition and causes of, 105; symptoms of, 106; remedies for, 

106-108 
Pneumonia, symptoms of, 93, 94 ; treatment of, 95-98 
Poisoning, symptoms of, 121; from yew, 121; from water dropwort, 

122 ; from arsenic, 122 ; from corrosive sublimate, 123 
Poll evil, the result of carelessness or brutality, 160 ; treatment of, 160 
Polypus in the vagina, 147 
Pumiced feet, treatment of, 84 
Purging, abuses of, 36 ; when proper, 37 ; recipes for, 38, 39, 42, 43 ; by 

the hand, 40 ; by injection, 40; Mr. Denny's remarks on, 42-54; 

inflammation from, 128 

Q. 

Quarter, false, treatment of, 192 

Qnittor, definition of, 199 ; treatment of, 200 



R. 



Rabies, symptoms and treatment of, 60 

Ringbone, treatment of, 173 

Roaring, causes of, 101 ; remedy for, 102 

Round bone, sprain of the, 176 

Rupture of the suspensory ligaments, 171 



S. 



Saddle-galls, treatment of, 157 

Sand-crack, causes of, and remedy for, 190-192 

Screw shoe, description of, 211 

Shoe, various kinds of, 206 ; uses and object of, 206 ; concave- seated,, 

207 ; bar, 209 ; one-sided nailed, 210 ; expansion, 210 ; clip, 210 ; 

screw, 211 ; tip, 211 
Shoeing of horses, object of, 206 
Shoulder lameness, treatment of, 164 
Sinews, back, sprain of the, causes and treatment of, 169 
Sit-fasts, treatment of, 158 
Skin, diseases of the, 151 



218 INDEX. 

Sleepy stag^gers, symptoms and treatment of, 55 

Sole, bruise of the, management of, 200 

Spasmodic colic, symptoms and treatment of, 129, 130 

Spavin, bog, treatment of, 178 ; bone, causes of, 178 

Speedy-cut, management of, 167 

Spine, anatomy of, 25 

Splent, definition of, 167; eauses of, 168; treatment for the cure of, 168 

Sprain, of the fore-arm, 164; of the back sinews, 169; of the fetlock 

joint, 171 ; of the suspensory ligaments, 171 ; of the pastern joint, 

173 ; of the coffin joint, 173 ; of the round bone, 176 
Staggers, impropriety of using the word, 54; symptoms of, 55; sleepy, 

55 ; stomach, 58 
Staling, profuse, 134; difficulty of, 135 
Stifle lameness, description of, 176; treatment of, 177 
Stomach, proper qualifications of, 27 ; staggers, symptoms and treatment 

of, 58 
Stone in the bladder, operation for, 141 
Strangles, symptoms and treatment of, 79-81 
Strangulation of the intestine, 132 
Strongylus in horses, 125 
Sublimate, corrosive, poisoning from, 123 
Superficial wounds, treatment of, 158 

Surfeit, symptoms of, 152 ; origin of, 152 ; remedies for, 153 
Suspensory ligaments, rupture and sprain of the, 171 
Swelled legs, cure of, 181 



T. 

Tail of the horse, operations on, 148 

Teeth, description of, 18; wolves', in horses, 19; how to judge of age 

by the, 19 
Tetanus, causes and symptoms of, 115, 116; treatment of, 117 
Thick wind, remedy for, 98 
Thorough-pin, treatment of, 177 
Thrush, danger of, 204 ; remedy for, 204 
Tips, description of, 211 ; advantages of, 211 
Tongue of the horse, peculiarities of, 17 
Tread, in horses, definition of, 192 ; treatment of, 192 



V. 

Vagina, polypus in the, 147 

Vertigo, symptoms of, 56; treatment of, 57 

Vives, in horses, remedies for, 83 



W. 



Warbles, treatment of, 158 
Warts on the penis, 146 



INDEX. 219 

Water dropwort, poisoning from, 122 

Water, parsley, palsy produced by, 122 

Windfalls, definition of, 170 ; treatment of, 170 

Wind, thick, 98; broken, 99 

Withers, importance of, to strength, 24 ; fistulous, causes and treatment 

of, 162 
Womb, inversion of the, 146 
Worms, in horses, 123 
Wounds, superficial, treatment of, 158; incised and lacerated, 159; 

penetrating the chest or belly, 162; in the feet, 197 



Y. 

Yew, poisoning from, 121 

Z. 

Zygomatic arch, description and uses of, 16 



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